E 

441 

K654f 


, 


t 


FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY 


BY 

WILLIAM  KITTLE 


MADISON,  WIS. 

STATE  JOURNAL  PRINTING  Co. 

1900 


COPYRIGHT,  1900, 

BY 
WILLIAM  KITTLE. 


K  *!> 


IP  5  -it  £ 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER. 

PAGE. 

I.     Two  Voyages        ..... 

II.     The  Royal  African  Company         .  .'  - 

III.     The  Middle  Passage      .         .         .  .          * 

,/lV.     Colonial  Slavery  ....  IO 

V.     Opinions  of  the  Fathers          ....  13 

VI.     State  Laws  .          .          .          .          '  x 

VII.     The  Ordinance  of  1787  •          .          .          .          !        15 

VIII.     The  Convention  of  1787         ....  I? 

IX.     Decline  of  Anti-slavery  Sentiment          .          .  2I 

X.     Tfle  Missouri  Compromise    ....  2i 

XL     The  Balance  of  Power  .          ....          .  -       '.       27 

Xfl.     Nullification 

XIII.  Old  Nat's  War       .... 

XIV.  The  Abo.itionists 

XV.     The  Liberty  Party         .....' 
XVI.     The  Annexation  of  Texas       ....  4O 

XVII.     The  Campaign  and  Election  of  1844        •          •  42 

XVIII.     The  War  with  Mexico  .          .          .  " 

XIX.     The  Wilmot  Proviso      .....' 
XX.     The  Campaign  and  Election  of  1848         .  45 

XXI.     Political  Excitement  during  1849    ... 
XXII.     The  Compromise  of  1850        .  ,. 

^XXIII.     Cotton  is  King       . 

^XXIV.     Plantation  Life 

XXV.     The  Slave  Trade  ....'.'*  £ 

XXVI.     Etf.ct  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law    ...'.'$$ 

.       60 

XXIX.     The  Campaign  and  Election  of  1852        ...       62 

XXX.     The  Kansas-Nebraska  Law  ...  5, 

XXXI.     Border  Warfare  in  Kansas      ....."       65 


XXVII.     The  Underground  Railroad 
XXVIII.     Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 


1763865 


CONTENTS. 


XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XLII. 

XLIII. 

XLIV. 

XLV. 

XLVI. 

XLVII. 

XLVIII. 

XLIX. 

If. 

LI. 

LI  I. 

LIII 

LIV. 

LV. 

LVI. 

LVII. 

LVIII. 

LIX. 

LX. 

LXI. 

LXII. 

LXIII. 

LX1V. 


The  Ostend  Manifesto 
The  Rise  of  the  Republican  Party 
The  Campaign  and  Election  of  1856 
The  Attack  on  Sumner 


PAGE. 
67 

68 
70 

72 


The  Dred  Scott  Decision 72 

The  Lincoln  and  Douglas  Debate         ...  74 

John  Brown's  Raid     ......  77 

The  Campaign  and  Election  of  1860     ...  80 
Secession             .         ...         .         .         .82 

The  Confederate  States  of  America      ...  85 

The  Peace  Congress 85 

Decision  at  the  South 85 

Division  at  the  North 86 

Lincoln's  Journey  to  Washington         ...  86 

Lincoln's  Inauguration         .          .          .          .          .  87 

The  North  and  South  Compared           ...  88 

Fort  Sumter       .......  90 

Opening  of  the  War   ......  91 

"A  Vision  of  the  War" 91 

The  Area  of  the  War           .....  94 

The  Union  and  Confederate  Armies    ...  94 

Battles  and  Loss  of  Life      .....  94 

Cost  of  the  War -95 

The  Freedom  of  the  Slaves          .         .         .         .  95  _^=- 

The  Navy  of  the  United  States    ....  97 

England  and  the  Civil  War           ....  100 

The  South  in  1865      .         .                   .         .         .  103 

The  Fall  of  Richmond         .          .         .         .         .104 

Lincoln  in  Richmond           .....  104 

Lee's  Surrender           ......  105 

Assassination  of  Lincoln     .....  105  ^_^ 

The  Grand  Review 107 

Two  Forces         .         .         .         .         «  -      •         .  107 


FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY. 


I.    TWO  VOYAGES. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  took 
place  two  important  voyages  from  England  to  America. 
One  of  the  vessels  was  named  the  Treasurer  and  the 
other  the  Mayflower.  A  period  of  only  sixteen  months 
separated  their  arrival  in  America.  One  of  these  brought 
slaves  and  the  other  the  Pilgrim  fathers  into  what  was 
long  afterward  the  United  States.  One  was  loaded 
with  black  men,  ignorant,  savage,  manacled,  scourged 
by  the  lash  and  brutalized  by  former  slavery;  the  other 
brought  men  and  women  deeply  religious,  some  of  them 
cultured  and  all  sternly  devoted  to  what  they  thought 
was  just  and  right. 

In  April,  1618,  the  Treasurer,  commanded  by  Captain 
Daniel  Elfrith,  left  England  and  arrived  in  Virginia  late 
in  the  summer  of  the  same  year.  Captain  Elfrith  had 
from  the  Duke  of  Savoy  a  commission  empowering  him 
to  seize  the  property  of  Spaniards.  This  vessel  was 
little  better  than  a  pirate,  as  England  was  then  at  peace 
with  Spain.  Gov.  Argall,  of  Virginia,  aided  in  refitting 
the  vessel  and  supplied  her  with  the  most  desperate  men 
he  could  find.  Captain  Elfrith  then  left  Virginia  for  the 
Barbadoes,  where  he  remained  six  weeks  in  the  winter 
of  1618-19.  I*1  the  spring  of  1619  he  set  out  on  a  rov- 
ing voyage,  no  record  of  which  has  been  kept;  but  in 
September,  1619,  the  Treasurer  in  consort  with  the 


6  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

"man-of-war  of  Flushing"  returned  to  Jamestown,  Va., 
with  a  cargo  of  negroes,  grain,  wax,  and  tallow.  This 
man-of-war  was  to  protect  the  Treasurer,  and  its  cap- 
tain, John  Powell,  held  from  the  Duke  of  Savoy  a  com- 
mission which  empowered  him  to  plunder  the  Spaniards. 
One  or  both  of  these  vessels  landed  twenty  negroes  at 
Jamestown.  Thus  slavery  began  in  the  colonies. 

The  Mayflower  left  Plymouth,  England,  September 
1 6,  1620.  A  steady  wind  bore  the  vessel  out  to  mid- 
ocean,  where  a  succession  of  terrible  storms  compelled 
the  ship  to  "  lie  to  "  for  several  days.  One  of  the  main 
beams  was  broken  by  the  force  of  the  great  waves. 
There  on  an  open  sea,  a  thousand  miles  from  either  shore, 
at  the  mercy  of  wind  and  wave  and  storm,  waited  and 
watched  and  prayed  one  hundred  men,  women  and 
children.  These  were  the  Puritans  coming  across  a 
great  ocean  and  to  a  new  world  for  conscience's  sake. 
On  December  21, 1620,  they  landed  at  Plymouth,  Mass. 
That  was  the  birthday  of  New  England;  and  the  rock 
on  which  they  landed  and  which  is  still  pointed  out  to 
travelers  will  not  be  forgotten  as  long  as  the  sea  shall 
continue  to  wash  it. 

What  had  these  two  voyages  to  do  with  each  other? 
Everything.  From  them  came  two  great  movements 
hostile  to  each  other  and  extending  over  two  and  a  half 
centuries  of  our  history.  The  Treasurer  began  the 
course  of  slavery;  the  Mayflower,  that  of  freedom. 
From  the  introduction  of  slavery  in  1619  until  its  aboli- 
tion in  1865,  there  was  not  an  hour  when  these  hostile 
forces  did  not  gather  strength  or  meet  in  open  conflict. 
It  was  in  truth  an  "  irrepressible  conflict."  For  the  first 
century  and  a  half  both  sides  gathered  strength  for  the 
contest.  During  that  period  slavery  was  firmly  estab- 


THE   ROYAL   AFRICAN   COMPANY.  7 

lished  in  every  colony  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
and  was  lawful  in  every  other  colony  north  of  that  line. 
But  in  the  northern  colonies,  the  force  of  public  opinion 
and  the  influence  of  free  institutions  and  free  labor  were 
strongly  in  the  direction  of  freedom  for  all  classes.  Dur- 
ing the  next  century,  the  hostility  of  these  two  move- 
ments was  clearly  recognized.  From  the  Revolution  to 
the  Civil  War,  the  South  with  its  millions  of  slaves  was, 
on  this  question,  opposed  to  the  North,  with  its  millions 
of  free  laborers.  But  the  Civil  War  closed  this  long 
conflict.  By  its  thousand  battles,  its  four  years  of  great 
endeavor,  its  billions  of  debt  and  its  millions  of  armed 
men,  two  hundred  and  forty-six  years  of  shameful  his- 
tory were  ended  and  four  million  slaves  were  set  free. 

II.    THE  ROYAL  AFRICAN  COMPANY. 

Fifty-seven  years  before  the  voyage  of  the  Treasurer, 
John  Hawkins,  commanding  three  small  vessels,  the 
Soloman,  the  Swallow,  and  the  Jonas,  sailed  from 
England  in  October,  1562.  He  went  by  way  of  the 
Canary  Islands  to  Sierra  Leone,  collected  three  hundred 
negroes,  crossed  westward  to  San  Domingo,  sold  them 
at  an  enormous  profit  and  returned  to  England.  Two 
years  later  he  made  the  same  voyage  and  became  the 
hero  of  the  hour  in  London.  In  this  trade  with  the 
Spanish  plantations  he  had  boldly  disobeyed  the  orders  of 
the  Spanish  king,  who  desired  that  such  trade  should  be 
held  by  Spaniards  only.  On  his  return  Hawkins  had 
openly  boasted  of  his  exploits,  and  had  even  told 
De  Silva,  the  ambassador  of  Philip,  king  of  Spain,  that 
he  should  soon  go  on  another  voyage  of  the  same  kind. 
De  Silva  wrote  to  Philip,  whose  lively  interest  was  at 


8  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

once  shown  by  the  startled  exclamations  "Ojo!  Ojo!'r 
which  he  inscribed  in  the  margin  of  his  ambassador's 
letter.  In  1567  Hawkins  left  England  on  his  third  voy- 
age, sold  his  negroes  in  the  Spanish  colonies  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  while  skirting  the  coast  of  Cuba  was 
caught  in  a  storm  and  driven  to  Mexico  near  Vera  Cruz. 
Here  he  was  betrayed  by  Spanish  officials  acting  under 
Philip's  orders,  and  with  a  few  men  barely  escaped  to 
England. 

Hawkins'  work  was  the  beginning  of  the  English  slave 
trade  between  Africa  and  America.  But  for  the  next 
hundred  years  very  few  negroes  were  brought  into  the 
North  American  colonies.  During  this  period  three 
African  trading  companies  were  chartered  by  the  kings 
of  England;  but  the  last  of  these  surrendered  its  charter 
in  1672  and  a  new  trading  company,  called  the  Royal 
African  Company,  was  given  a  charter  to  trade  in  Africa 
and  send  slaves  to  America.  This  new  company  had  a 
capital  of  $500,000,  and  paid  the  old  company  $175,000 
for  its  forts  and  warehouses  in  Africa.  It  had  agencies 
in  London  where  merchants  of  that  city  gave  orders  for 
slaves  just  as  for  other  merchandise.  The  planters  in 
the  colonies  sent  their  orders  for  slaves  to  the  London 
merchants.  In  1713  Spain  and  England  formed  the 
Assiento  or  treaty  by  which  the  Royal  African  Com- 
pany obtained  a  complete  monopoly  of  the  slave  trade 
for  thirty  years.  The  Company  agreed  to  pay  the  king 
of  Spain  200,000  florins  and  33^-  florins  for  each  slave 
imported  into  Spain.  The  sovereigns  of  England  and 
Spain  were  each  to  receive  one-fourth  of  the  profits  of 
the  Company.  The  Company  agreed  to  furnish  the 
colonies  144,000  thousand  slaves  in  the  thirty  years,  at 
the  rate  of  4,800  each  year,  but  could  supply  as  many 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE.  9 

more  negroes  as  it  could  sell.  The  Royal  African  Com- 
pany as  an  exclusive  trading  body  ceased  in  1750,  when 
Parliament  threw  open  the  slave  trade  to  any  merchant 
who  would  pay  a  fee  of  forty  shillings. 

By  means  of  these  companies  a  steady  stream  of 
negroes  flowed  to  the  new  world.  For  a  hundred  years 
before  the  American  Revolution  thousands  of  black  men 
were  unloaded  and  sold  each  year  at  the  American  ports. 
From  1680  to  1688,  the  Royal  African  Company  sent 
249  ships  from  England  to  Africa  and  transported  60,000 
slaves  to  America.  Nor  were  English  merchants  alone 
responsible  for  this  trade.  Each  year  saw  numerous 
slavers  leave  Boston,  Salem,  Providence  and  Newport 
to  engage  in  the  trade.  By  1700,  the  number  of  negroes 
taken  yearly  rose  to  25,000,  and  from  1733  to  1750  the 
number  averaged  more  than  20,000  each  year.  Prob- 
ably more  than  half  of  all  these  were  sold  to  the  North 
American  colonies.  By  1775,  more  than  300,000  negroes 
had  been  sold  as  slaves  along  the  coast  from  Maine  to 
Georgia. 

III.    THE  MIDDLE  PASSAGE. 

These  numbers  are  appalling  when  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  capture  of  the  negroes  on  the  African  coast 
and  the  horrors  of  the  "  Middle  Passage "  to  America. 
When  the  slaver  lay  at  anchor  on  the  African  coast, 
bands  of  armed  men  went  to  the  interior,  seized  the 
wretched  victims,  bound  them  back  to  back,  and  in  the 
morning  put  them,  tied  hand  and  foot,  on  board  the  slave 
ship.  The  "  Middle  Passage  "  was  a  long  voyage  from 
the  west  coast  of  Africa  to  the  new  world,  and  under  a 
hot  and  burning  sky.  For  more  than  three  thousand 
miles  in  the  torrid  zone,  the  slave  ship  formed  the  worst 


10  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

of  prisons.  Sometimes  as  many  as  five  hundred  negroes 
were  crowded  on  board  a  small  vessel  of  only  two  hun- 
dred tons.  In  the  morning  all  the  captives  were  com- 
pelled to  come  up  on  deck  to  "  dance  "  for  exercise.  If 
one  refused,  the  frightful  cat-o'-nine-tails  was  used. 
Open  rebellion  met  instant  death.  Those  who  were  dis- 
orderly suffered  the -thumb-screws  or  were  chained  by 
the  neck  and  limbs.  \  The  daily  food  was  salt  pork  and 
beans.  At  sunset  all  were  driven  below  and  forced  to 
lie  side  by  side  on  the  bare  boards.  To  prevent  mutiny, 
whole  rows  were  chained  together  and  to  the  floor. 
Here  at  night  the  air  grew  thick  and  hot,  diseases  were 
communicated,  curses  and  groans  and  sobbings  were 
heard,  and  in  the  morning,  exhausted  and  feverish,  the 
slaves  went  to  the  deck.  On  a  stormy  voyage  it  was 
awful.  Then,  all  were  driven  below,  the  hatches  were 
securely  fastened  down,  and  all  ventilation  ceased.  When 
the  storm  was  past,  those  who  were  alive  were  allowed 
to  come  forth  with  parched  mouths  and  tongues  swollen. 
Sometimes  one-half  or  even  two-thirds  of  all  the  negroes 
di-ed  on  the  "  Middle  Passage; "  but  the  average  loss  of 
life  was  from  ten  to  fifteen  out  of  every  hundred. 

IV.     COLONIAL   SLAVERY:  1619-1775. 

Slaves  were  in  all  of  the  thirteen  colonies.  In  i775> 
from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia  inclusive,  the  whites 
numbered  about  2,000,000  and  the  blacks  500,000;  but 
five-sixths  of  all  the  slaves  were  held  south  of  the  bound- 
ary line  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland.  In  the 
four  New  England  colonies  there  were  not  far  from 
25,000.  In  the  four  middle  colonies  of  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  the  negroes  num- 


COLONIAL   SLAVERY.  II 

bered  about  50,000.  In  the  remaining  five  colonies  the 
slaves  numbered  over  425,000.  In  1775,  in  the  New  Eng- 
1  ind  colonies  there  were  forty-two  whites  to  one  black, 
and  in  the  four  middle  colonies  thirteen  to  one;  but  in  the 
five  southern  colonies  the  slaves  outnumbered  the  whites. 

SLAVE   LAWS. 

By  law,  in  each  of  the  thirteen  colonies  the  slave  was 
the  property  of  his  master;  he  could  be  bought,  sold, 
leased,  loaned,  bequeathed  by  will,  mortgaged  and  seized 
f  3r  debt,  and  could  neither  hold  nor  acquire  property. 
The  clothes  that  he  wore,  the  cabin  in  which  he  lived, 
and  the  wife  and  children  who  toiled  with  him  in  the 
fields,  belonged  to  his  master.  The  slave  could  be  pun- 
ished as  the  master  saw  fit,  and  if  death  resulted,  the  law 
presumed  the  master  innocent  on  the  ground  that  he 
would  not  intentionally  destroy  his  own  property.  The 
usual  legal  punishments  were  starvation,  crucifixion  and 
burning.  If  a  slave  ran  away  he  at  once  became  an 
outlaw  and  was  hunted  as  an  animal.  He  could  not 
leave  the  plantation  without  a  written  permit,  and  if 
found  without  one  could  be  whipped  by  each  person  into 
whose  hands  he  fell  until  he  was  returned  to  his  master. 
He  could  not  own  a  gun  or  any  weapon  of  defense. 
The  law  forbade  him  to  wander  about  at  night  or  to 
assemble  at  feasts  or  funerals  or  any  gatherings  in  par- 
ties of  more  than  seven.  Three  facts  modify  our  view 
of  these  severe  laws:  harsh  laws  were  common  at  that 
time,  the  savage  nature  of  many  newly  arrived  slaves 
made  strict  restraint  necessary,  and  the  natural  kindness 
of  the  owners  prevented  the  execution  of  the  laws  to  the 
great  majority  of  the  negroes. 


12  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

It  is  certain  that  outside  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia 
the  slaves  were  well  and  mildly  treated.  They  had  suf- 
ficient food,  were  fairly  clothed,  and  not  overworked  or 
often  beaten.  In  the  northern  and  middle  colonies  they 
were  employed  as  house  servants  or  doing  all  kinds  of 
menial  work  in  the  cities.  In  the  southern  colonies  they 
toiled  in  the  fields  in  the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  indigo 
and  rice.  In  Connecticut  only  one  or  two  slaves  were 
held  by  one  person,  while  in  Maryland  one  wealthy 
planter  owned  thirteen  hundred  negroes,  and  one  planter 
in  Virginia  nine  hundred  slaves.  The  average  number 
on  each  Carolina  plantation  was  thirty.  Each  plantation 
was  a  community  by  itself.  All  the  trades  were  repre- 
sented. Part  of  the  slaves  were  house  servants;  one 
was  his  master's  coachman,  another  a  blacksmith  or  a 
carpenter,  and  still  others  were  field  hands.  The  "  negro 
quarter  "  was  the  collection  of  small,  whitewashed  cabins 
where  the  slaves  of  the  plantation  lived.  Here  they 
gathered  after  the  day's  work  was  over,  told  stories, 
sang  songs  and  watched  their  children  at  piay.  They 
were  fond  of  music  and  delighted  in  brilliant  colors. 
They  were  densely  ignorant  and  superstitious.  When 
night  came  on  and  groups  gathered  in  the  firelight,  their 
eyes  rolled  in  terror  at  the  stories  of  witches,  ghosts  and 
devils.  The  "  great  house,"  as  the  slaves  called  it,  was 
the  planter's  home.  This  was  a  long  and  wide  building, 
with  large  rooms  and  a  spacious  hallway  in  the  center. 
Around  it  were  fine  driveways  and  acres  of  well-kept 
grounds,  covered  with  stately  oak  trees  which  cast  their 
deep  shadows  in  the  long  summer  of  the  South. 


OPINIONS   OF   THE    FATHERS.  13 

V.    OPINIONS  OF  THE  FATHERS. 

In  1775,  over  400; ooo  slaves  toiled  in  the  tobacco,  rice 
and  indigo  fields  of  the  South,  but  their  hard  lot  had 
been  noticed,  and  from  time  to  time  sympathetic  voices 
had  been  heard  in  their  behalf.  Though  these  voices  of 
freedom  were  scattered  far  and  wide,  and  heard  only  at 
intervals,  yet  they  were  not  raised  in  vain.  They  were 
like  the  prelude  to  some  great  piece  of  music,  whose 
first  clear  notes,  dying  away  in  silence,  break  at  last  into 
the  full  movement. 

The  first  recorded  petition  against  slavery  in  the  col- 
onies was  drawn  up  by  some  Quakers  of  Germantown, 
Pa.,  in  1688.  They  said  it  was  "  not  lawful  to  buy  or 
keep  slaves."  This  was  only  six  years  after  Philadelphia 
was  founded.  William  Penn  held  slaves,  but  in  his  will 
made  them  free  at  his  death.  In  1758  the  Society  of 
Friends  forbade  any  slave-buyer  to  sit  in  their  meetings. 
Through  the  influence  of  the  Quakers,  thousands  of 
slaves  were  set  free  by  their  masters.  But  the  Friends 
were  not  the  only  religious  body  that  spoke  for  freedom. 
In  1780  the  Methodists,  at  their  eighth  conference, 
voted  "slave-keeping  hurtful  to  society  and  contrary  to 
the  laws  of  God,  man,  and  nature."  Five  years  later 
the  Methodist  conferences  of  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina asked  the  assemblies  of  those  States  to  abolish 
slavery.  The  first  prominent  abolitionist  was  Rev. 
Samuel  Hopkins,  of  Rhode  Island.  During  the  Revolu- 
tion, he  published  an  argument  for  abolition  in  the  form 
of  a  dialogue  and  dedicated  it  to  Congress.  Washington 
spoke  and  wrote  against  slavery.  His  most  intimate 
friend  and  neighbor,  George  Mason,  spoke  bitterly  of 
the  system.  Patrick  Henry  poured  out  his  scorn  for  the 


14  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

wrong.  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote,  "  I  tremble  for  my 
country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  justice  and  that  his 
justice  cannot  sleep  forever."  Benjamin  Franklin  was 
president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society.  Richard 
Henry  Lee  and  Edmund  Randolph  desired  freedom  for 
all  slaves.  James  Madison  said  that  the  words  "  slave  '  • 
and  "  slavery  "  were  not  used  in  the  national  constitution 
because  the  men  who  sat  in  the  great  convention  of  1787 
would  not  admit  that  there  could  be  property  in  human 
beings.  Thus,  everywhere  and  by  everybody,  slavery 
was  looked  upon  as  a  wrong,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
numerous  societies  were  formed  to  abolish  slavery.  The 
first  abolition  society  was  organized  in  Pennsylvania  in 
1774,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  was  elected  its  president. 
John  Jay  was  president  of  the  New  York  Abolition 
Society.  From  1774  to  J792  sucri  societies  had  been 
formed  in  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  during  the  same 
period  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
had  abolished  slavery  and  Delaware  had  forbidden  the 
slave-trade.  In  North  Carolina  there  was  a  strong  senti- 
ment against  slavery,  especially  among  the  Quakers. 
Thus  in  every  colony  except  South  Carolina  and  Geor- 
gia there  was  a  rising  tide  of  feeling  against  slavery. 

VI.     STATE  LAWS:  1775-1785. 

This  opposition  to  slavery  showed  itself  most  strongly 
from  1775  to  1785.  During  this  period  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  gave  no  hope  to  the  slave.  North  Carolina 
laid  a  tax  of  $25  on  each  negro  imported.  Virginia, 
Maryland,  Delaware  and  New  Jersey  had  forbidden  the 
foreign  slave  trade.  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Ver- 


ORDINANCE    OF    1787.  1 5 

mont,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
had  either  abolished  slavery  outright  or  had  passed  laws 
which  gave  freedom  to  every  child  born  after  the  law 
was  passed.  When  the  Revolution  came,  each  State, 
except  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  adopted  a  new 
constitution,  and  in  not  a  single  constitution  was  slavery 
legally  established.  The  words  "  slave  "  or  "  slavery  " 
were  not  even  used  in  any  one  of  the  eleven  new  consti- 
tutions, except  in  the  constitution  of  Delaware,  where 
these  words  were  used  to  abolish  the  slave  trade.  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island  did  not  adopt  new  constitu- 
tions, but  they  abolished  both  slavery  and  the  slave  trade. 
Thus,  by  1785,  two  states  had  done  nothing  for  the 
negro,  one  had  taxed  the  slave  trade,  four  had  forbidden 
it,  and  six  had  passed  laws  for  immediate  or  gradual 
freedom. 

VII.     THE  ORDINANCE  OF  1787. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  was  a  law  passed  by  Congress 
creating  a  government  for,  and  forever  forbidding  slav- 
ery in,  all  the  land  owned  by  the  United  States  north  and 
west  of  the  Ohio  river.  This  law  abolished  slavery  in 
what  is  now  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wiscon- 
sin and  Michigan.  Thus  by  a  single  law,  a  territory 
almost  as  large  as  England  and  France  was  set  apart  for 
freedom. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  three  States,  Virginia, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  claimed  this  vast,  un- 
known and  forest-covered  region.  In  1784  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts  gave- up  all  claim  to  it,  and  sixteen  years 
later  Connecticut  surrendered  to  the  United  States  her 
"  Western  Reserve."  Thomas  Jefferson  carried  to  Con- 


l6  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

gress  the  Virginia  deed  of  her  claim.  He  urged  Con- 
gress to  abolish  slavery,  not  only  in  the  northwest 
territo^,  but  also  in  the  southwest  territory,  and  thus 
give  to  freedom  all  the  land  from  the  mountains  to  the 
Mississippi  river.  He  wished  to  hem  in  slavery  by  the 
ocean  and  a  strong  chain  of  free  States;  but  he  lost  by 
asking  too  much,  and  it  was  not  until  three  years  later, 
when  he  was  minister  in  France,  that  the  question  again 
came  before  Congress. 

The  Ohio  Company  was  started  mainly  by  the  efforts 
of  General  Rufus  Putnam  and  Benjamin  Tupper.  Put- 
nam had  been  for  some  distance  down  the  Ohio  river 
and  had  caught  glimpses  of  that  fertile  soil  which  he 
knew  in  time  would  support  millions  of  people.  He 
went  back  to  New  England  and  published  glowing  ac- 
counts of  the  country,  and  proposed  that  a  company 
should  be  formed  to  secure  lands  for  the  Revolutionary 
soldiers.  In  1786  delegates  from  eight  counties  in  Massa- 
chusetts met  at  Boston  and  heard  Putnam  and  Tupper 
describe  the  country  and  the  plan  of  the  company.  The 
result  was  the  formation  of  the  Ohio  Company.  Put- 
nam, Samuel  Parsons  and  Manasseh  Cutler  were  made 
directors,  and  Cutler  was  sent  to  New  York  City,  where 
Congress  then  sat,  to  buy  land  for  the  Ohio  Company. 
Cutler  met  many  members  of  Congress  and  offered  to 
buy  5,000,000  acres  of  land  on  condition  that  slavery 
should  not  be  allowed  in  the  territory.  Congress  was 
eager  to  sell  the  land  and  a  bargain  was  quickly  made. 
The  result  was  the  famous  Ordinance  of  1787.  The 
three  men  who  had  most  to  do  in  securing  the  passage 
of  this  great  law  of  Congress  were  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Rufus  King  and  William  Grayson.  On  the  day  that  it 
passed  eight  States  were  represented  in  Congress  by 


CONVENTION    OF    1787.  1 7 

eighteen  delegates,  and  seventeen  voted  "  Aye."  One 
man  from  New  York  voted  "  No."  The  law  declared 
that  "  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  the  pun- 
ishment of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted." 


VIII.    THE  CONVENTION  OF  1787. 

While  Congress  at  New  York  City  was  debating  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  a  far  greater  body  of  men  at  Phila- 
delphia was  considering  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  This  convention  consisted  of  delegates  from 
twelve  States  and  was  held  in  Independence  Hall,  where 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed.  Washing- 
ton was  president  of  the  convention.  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, over  eighty  years  of  age,  was  there  to  give  the  bene- 
fit of  his  long  and  varied  experience  in  public  affairs. 
Alexander  Hamilton,  with  a  mind  more  brilliant  and 
constructive  than  any  other  in  that  great  assemblage, 
left  his  law  practice  in  New  York  to  attend  the  conven- 
tion. Madison,  one  of  the  most  careful  and  thoughtful 
of  men,  was  there.  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson 
were  absent  as  ambassadors  in  Europe.  Sam.  Adams 
and  Patrick  Henry  stood  aloof,  critical  and  suspicious. 
Sixty-five  delegates  were  elected  to  the  convention,  but 
ten  of  them  never  attended.  Thirty-nine  signed  their 
names  to  the  Constitution.  Every  State  except  Rhode 
Island  was  represented.  The  convention  held  almost 
daily  sessions  from  May  25  to  September  17.  When  the 
Constitution  was  completed  it  was  found  that  it  con- 
tained three  important  provisions  relating  to  slavery. 


1 8  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

The  first  was  the  clause  providing  for  the  return  of 
runaway  slaves.  It  declared  that  a  slave  escaping  into 
a  free  State  should  not  gain  his  freedom  by  any  law  of 
the  free  State,  but  should  be  returned  to  his  owner. 
This  clause  was  put  into  the  Constitution  mainly  through 
the  efforts  of  Pierce  Butler,  of  South  Carolina.  Butler 
seems  to  have  been  a  sharp  and  persistent  attorney  in 
the  interest  of  slavery.  To  carry  out  this  provision, 
Congress,  in  1793,  passed  the  first  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
which  gave  the  owner  the  legal  right  to  enter  a  free 
State  in  pursuit  of  his  slave,  bind  him  in  chains  and 
return  him  into  helpless,  hopeless  bondage.  This  law 
was  at  once  put  into  operation.  Under  it  a  negro  boy 
in  Massachusetts  was  arrested,  and  Josiah  Quincy  de- 
fended him  in  court.  Later  Quincy  said  he  "heard  a 
noise  and,  turning  around,  he  saw  the  constable  lying 
sprawling  on  the  floor  and  a  passage  opening  through 
the  crowd  through  which  the  fugitive  was  taking  his 
departure,  without  stopping  to  hear  the  opinion  of  the 
court."  This  law  was  also  used  to  capture  the  free 
negroes,  who  then  numbered  thousands  in  North  Caro- 
lina, Pennsylvania,  Delaware  and  Maryland.  A  brutal 
slave  driver  would  pretend  ownership  of  a  free  negro, 
chase  him  with  bloodhounds  through  swamps  and  fields, 
and  when  he  was  captured,  sell  him  into  slavery.  By 
1796  this  kidnaping  had  become  such  a  common  occur- 
rence that  Delaware  asked  the  government  of  the  United 
States  to  stop  it.  The  Quakers  of  North  Carolina  also 
asked  Congress  to  protect  the  liberty  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  free  negroes  who  had  been  kidnaped. 
Four  negroes  of  North  Carolina  petitioned  Congress  for 
protection.  The  free  negroes  of  Philadelphia  in  1799 
asked  Congress  to  stop  kidnaping  in  Maryland  and  Penn- 


CONVENTION    OF    1787.  Ip 

sylvania.  A  violent  debate  sprang  up  in  Congress  when 
these  petitions  were  read.  Jackson,  of  Georgia,  said 
that  property  in  slaves  would  be  in  danger  if  any  extra 
attention  was  given  the  petitions.  Congress  voted  to 
give  back  to  the  North  Carolina  Quakers  their  petition. 
Other  petitions  were  not  considered.  Kidnaping  contin- 
ued. The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  stood  for  fifty-seven 
years  and  produced  a  long  history  of  outrages. 

The  second  provision  of  the  Constitution  relating  to 
slavery  declared  that  Congress  should  not  stop  the  slave- 
trade  before  1808.  All  the  States  but  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  wished  to  put  into  the  Constitution  a  clause 
abolishing  the  trade  at  once.  Charles  Pinckney,  of 
South  Carolina,  plainly  told  the  delegates  from  the  other 
States  that  his  State  would  not  agree  to  the  Constitu- 
tion if  it  prohibited  the  slave-trade.  "No  slave-trade, 
no  Union  "  was  the  clear-cut  statement  of  Rutledge  and 
Pinckney.  But  with  this  difficulty  arose  another.  The 
New  England  States  wished  to  give  Congress  power  to 
regulate  commerce.  Before  1787,  each  State  had  con- 
trol of  foreign  commerce  and  there  were  as  many  sets 
of  rules  and  taxes  on  imported  goods  as  there  were 
States.  This  interfered  very  greatly  with  trade.  New 
England  was  largely  interested  in  this  foreign  trade. 
Her  vessels  plied  constantly  between  Europe  and 
America.  Therefore  New  England,  in  order  to  increase 
the  amount  of  trade,  washed  to  give  Congress  the  power 
to  regulate  that  trade.  But  the  South  was  afraid  New 
England  would  soon  get  control  of  all  the  vessels  run- 
ning between  Europe  and  America,  and  would  raise 
the  freight  rates  on  all  goods  shipped  either  way.  Here 
was  a  chance  for  a  bargain  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 


20  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

cut  agreed  to  allow  the  slave-trade,  to  run  for  twenty 
years,  or  until  1808,  if  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
would  vote  to  give  Congress  power  to  regulate  com- 
merce. The  two  slave  States  accepted,  and  for  twenty 
years  longer  not  a  year  went  by  that  did  not  see  hundreds 
of  negroes  suffer  the  horrors  of  the  "  Middle  Passage." 
The  third  provision  of  the  Constitution  relating  to 
slavery  declared  that  each  State  should  be  represented 
in  Congress  according  to  its  population,  but  that  the 
population  should  be  found  by  adding  to  the  whole  num- 
ber of  free  persons  three-fifths  of  all  the  slaves.  This 
almost  doubled  the  power  of  the  South  in  Congress.  In 
1790,  there  were  only  40,000  slaves  in  the  States  north 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  while  south  of  that  line  there 
were  over  650,000.  The  total  number  of  representatives 
in  Congress  was  sixty-five,  and  out  of  this  number  the 
six  southern  States  had  thirty  members  of  Congress. 
Thirteen  of  the  thirty  southern  members  represented 
slaves  who  were  not  citizens  and  who  could  not  vote. 
Thus  one  planter  in  the  South  had  nearly  twice  as  much 
power  in  Congress  as  a  farmer  or  merchant  in  the  North. 
But  this  was  not  all.  A  very  small  number  of  wealthy 
and  aristocratic  families  held  all  the  political  power  of 
the  South.  It  was  indeed  a  generous  and  noble  aristoc- 
racy. Its  members  prided  themselves  on  their  manhood, 
bravery,  kindness  and  hospitality.  But  these  wealthy 
families  ruled  the  South,  and  more  than  that,  a  few 
thousand  of  these  great  planters  were  now  given  as  much 
power  in  Congress  as  1,900,000  free  persons  at  the 
North.  In  the  free  States  this  was  felt  to  be  unfair;  but 
in  order  to  form  the  Union,  the  North  was  forced  to 
agree  to  it,  and  for  seventy  years  the  South  used  with 
vigor  the  advantage  extorted  by  fear. 


MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  21 

IX.      DECLINE    OF    ANTI-SLAVERY  SENTI- 
MENT: 1790-1820. 

For  thirty  years  following  the  convention  of  1787, 
agitation  of  the  slavery  question  gradually  died  out. 
This  was  due  to  several  causes.  The  Constitution  itself 
cut  off  all  hope.  It  clearly  and  strongly  recognized 
slavery  as  a  fact.  The  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  the 
continuance  of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  representation  of 
slaves,  were  the  three  great  conditions  of  Union.  The 
second  bar  to  slavery  agitation  was  the  fact  that  the 
best  intelligence  of  the  country  was  directed  to  the 
organization  of  the  new  government.  Laws  had  to  be 
made,  courts  established,  numerous  departments  set  in 
operation,  an  army  and  a  navy  formed,  debts  paid,  a 
revenue  system  adopted,  a  rebellion  put  down,  and  vari- 
ous other  domestic  and  foreign  questions  settled.  Hardly 
was  the  new  government  well  under  way  when  a  series 
of  foreign  questions  absorbed  public  attention,  and  soon 
led  to  war.  Public  attention  to  this  new  danger,  and  to 
the  questions  to  which  it  gave  rise,  allowed  no  room  for 
slavery  agitation.  The  formation  of  two  great  political 
parties  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  Union  also  pre- 
vented such  agitation.  Political  intrigue  and  partisanship, 
caucus  and  campaign  held  the  close  attention  of  thousands 
of  men  besides  such  leaders  as  Jefferson  and  Hamilton. 
Thus  the  Constitution,  the  organization  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment, the  formation  of  parties,  and  foreign  war 
opposed  the  rise  of  anti-slavery  sentiment. 

X.     THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE:   1820. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  was  a  law  passed  by  Con- 
gress and  signed  by  the  President,  prohibiting  slavery 
in  all  the  territory  north  of  the  southern  boundary  of  Mis- 


22  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

souri  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  river,  except  Missouri, 
which  was  admitted  as  a  slave  State.  About  the  same 
time  Maine  was  admitted  as  a  free  State  to  balance  the 
admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State,  For  the  sake  of 
peace  and  Union,  the  North  voted  to  spread  slavery 
over  a  vast  and  fertile  country  and  the  South  voted  for 
freedom  over  a  yet  greater  and  richer  domain.  For  the 
sake  of  the  great  republic,  the  North  voted  for  what  it 
thought  was  a  moral  wrong  and  the  South  gave  up  what 
it  thought  was  a  clear  legal  right.  The  North  violated 
its  conscience  and  the  South  sacrificed  the  rights  of  a 
brave  and  proud  people.  Both  sides  were  honest,  and 
both  laid  their  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  the  Union. 

The  North  and  the  South,  in  1820,  differed  in  resources 
and  in  power.  There  were  then  eleven  free  and  eleven 
slave  States.  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  the  Ohio 
river  divided  the  two  sections.  North  of  this  line  there 
was  a  population  of  over  5,000,000  and  south  of  it  were 
over  4,500,000  persons,  of  whon^i,I5'oo,ooo  were  slaves. 
By  the  three-fifths  rule  the  slaves  counted  for  nearly 
1,000,000  and  sent  twenty-six  representatives  to  Congress. 
The  North  sent  133  and  the  South  90  representatives 
to  the  lower -house  of  Congress.  The  two  sections  were 
equal  in  the  Senate  and  a  southern  slaveholder  was  Presi- 
dent. The  North  manufactured  more  than  $4,000,000 
worth  of  cotton  goods,  while  the  South  manufactured 
less  than  $1,000,000  worth  of  cotton.  Most  of  the  in- 
ventions and  machinery  were  produced  and  used  at  the 
North.  Most  of  the  tools  and  farming  implements  of 
the  South  were  home-made  and  rude.  For  more  than 
a  thousand  miles,  from  eastern  Massachussetts  to  west- 
ern Illinois,  farm  and  factory,  mine  ahd  manufactory 
made  the  North  a  hive  of  industry;  while  from  eastern 


MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  23 

Virginia  to  western  Louisiana  stretched  a  thousand  miles 
of  tobacco  and  cotton  plantations,  worked  by  slaves  and 
supporting  a  white  population. 

These  were  the  two  sections  that  squarely  faced  each 
other  on  the  question  of  slavery  in  Missouri.  The  con- 
test took  place  at  the  Capitol  in  Washington.  At  the 
outset  the  South  had  the  advantage.  The  President  and 
a  majority  of  his  cabinet  were  slave-holders.  The  Senate 
was  strongly  for  the  South,  and  most  of  the  ablest  men  of 
the  nation — Jefferson,  Madison,  Clay  and  Calhoun — 
were  in  favor  of  slavery  in  Missouri. 

The  bill  to  admit  Missouri  came  before  Congress  in 
February,  1819.  Mr.  Tallmadge,  of  New  York,  moved 
that  no  more  slaves  be  allowed  to  enter  Missouri,  and  that 
all  slaves  in  that  Territory  should  be  free  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five  years.  This  was  the  famous  "Tallmadge 
Amendment."  It  passed  the  House,  but  the  Senate 
voted  against  it.  Mr.  Scott,  of  Missouri,  said  the  Tall- 
madge Amendment  was  "big  with  the  fate  of  Csesar 
and  of  Rome."  Mr.  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  said  that  if  the 
North  persisted  in  that  amendment  the  Union  would  be 
dissolved  and  that  they  "  were  kindling  a  fire  which  all 
the  waters  of  the  ocean  could  not  extinguish.  It  could 
be  extinguished  only  in  blood."  Tallmadge  replied: 
"  If  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  must  take  place,  let  it  be 
so!  If  a  civil  war,  which  gentlemen  so  much  threaten, 
must  come,  I  can  only  say,  let  it  come." 

During  the  summer  of  1819,  Congress  adjourned  and 
the  Missouri  question  was  taken  before  the  people. 
Great  excitement  prevailed.  Large  public  meetings 
were  held  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Trenton 
and  Baltimore,  and  sent  strong  protests  to  Congress 
against  allowing  slavery  in  Missouri.  Daniel  Webster 


24  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

wrote  a  noble  protest  against  extending  slavery.  The 
legislatures  of  six  northern  States  protested  against  ex- 
tending slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  newspapers  made 
the  North  a  unit  on  the  question.  Nor  was  the  South 
less  united.  Jefferson  said  that  the  strife  fell  on  his  ear 
"  like  a  fire-bell  in  the  night,"  but  that  "  The  question  is 
a  mere  party  trick  "  to  give  the  Federalists  control  of 
the  North.  The  Federalist  party,  being  unpopular  for 
having  opposed  the  War  of  1812,  and  needing  a  new  and 
popular  political  war  cry,  chose  the  battle  cry  of  free- 
dom. The  South  believed  it  was  a  party  trick  and  not 
the  sincere  sentiment  of  the  North  towards  slavery.  The 
truth  is  that  party  politics  did  influence  the  northern 
politicians,  but  beneath  this  surface  fact  lay  the  innate 
and  deep-seated  antagonism  between  freedom  and 
slavery. 

In  the  winter  of  1819-20  the  question  again  came  be- 
fore Congress.  Both  sides  brought  great  determination 
and  ability  to  the  contest.  During  the  debate,  Mr.  Rug- 
gles,  of  Ohio,  said:  "The  people  of  Missouri  fifty  years 
hence  will  trace,  not  to  a  British  king,  not  to  a  corrupt 
British  Parliament,  but  to  Congress  the  evils  of  slavery." 
Mr.  Cook,  of  Illinois,  said:  "Unless  she  comes  in  the 
white  robes  of  freedom  and  a  pledge  against  the  further 
evils  of  slavery,  with  my  consent  she  will  not  be  admit- 
ted." John  Tyler  replied:  "Rail  at  slavery  as  much 
as  you  please,  I  point  you  to  the  Constitution  and  say  to 
you  that  you  have  not  only  acknowledged  our  right  to 
this  species  of  property,  but  you  have  gone  much  fur- 
ther, and  have  bound  yourselves  to  rivet  the  chains  of 
the  slave."  Clay's  clarion  voice  rang  out  for  slavery, 
and  once  he  whispered  to  -a  member  that  within  five 
years  the  Union  would  break  up  into  three  confedera- 


MISSOURI    COMPROMISE.  25 

cies  —  North,  South,  and  West.  During  this  debate  the 
House  sat  in  what  is  now  Statuary  Hall.  Between 
the  lofty  columns  hung  crimson  curtains.  Over  the 
Speaker's  chair  was  a  canopy  of  crimson  silk.  Chairs 
and  desks  were  arranged  to  seat  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
seven  members  of  the  House.  Here  for  months  north- 
ern members  spoke  for  freedom  and  southern  planters 
urged  the  rights  of  property  under  the  Constitution. 
One  day  when  the  House  was  in  session  the  clanking 
of  chains  and  the  crack  of  a  whip  was  heard  outside  and 
several  members  ran  to  the  window  and  saw  a  villainous 
looking  slave  driver  with  a  gang  of  fifteen  negroes  going 
west  on  Capitol  hill.  The  slaves  were  handcuffed  and 
chained  to  each  other,  and  the  women  and  children  were 
placed  at  the  rear  of  the  procession.  At  another  time, 
a  black  face  in  the  gallery  alarmed  the  southern  mem- 
bers and  debate  was  stopped  till  the  listening  negro  was 
removed.  But  the  great  debate  took  place  just  across 
the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  in  the  Senate  chamber.  There 
Rufus  King,  of  New  York,  made  the  best  and  strongest 
speech  for  the  North.  For  forty  years  he  had  held  high 
positions  in  the  government,  had  been  minister  to  Eng- 
land, had  declined  Washington's  invitation  to  be  Secre- 
tary of  State,  had  sat  in  the  great  convention  of  1787, 
and  now  represented  the  Empire  State  in  the  Senate. 
His  manner  was  courtly  and  dignified,  his  language 
exact  and  pure.  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  heard  him, 
said  that  during  his  speech  the  great  slave-holders 
gnawed  their  lips  and  clenched  their  fists.  The  South  put 
forward  their  greatest  orator  in  the  person  of  William 
Pinkney,  of  Maryland.  He,  too,  had  held  the  highest 
public  offices.  He  had  been  attorney-general  of  Maryland, 
representative  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  attorney- 


26  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

general  of  the  United  States,  minister  to  several  Euro- 
pean countries,  and  was  perhaps  the  ablest  lawyer  of  the 
United  States.  He  loved  the  law,  and  his  one  ambition 
was  to  be  the  finest  of  orators.  He  answered  Rufus 
King.  On  the  day  that  he  spoke,  members  of  the  cabi- 
net came  to  the  Senate.  The  House  of  Representatives 
went  to  hear  him.  Foreign  diplomats  crowded  to  hear 
the  orator  who  was  said  to  rival  the  great  Burke  in 
wealth  of  imagery  and  eloquence. 

More  than  a  hundred  ladies  were  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate.  He  appeared  in  faultless  dress,  wearing  tinted 
gloves  and  elaborate  ruffles,  as  the  style  then  ran.  His 
speech  had  long  been  prepared,  but  it  .appeared  to 
spring  full  armed  from  his  brain  as  he  stood  the  center 
and  delight  of  that  great  assemblage.  His  gorgeous 
display  of  eloquence  more  than  satisfied  his  brilliant 
audience. 

The  South  controlled  the  Senate,  and  the  North  the 
House.  Neither  would  yield  in  full  to  the  other;  and 
so  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  a  senator  from  Illinois,  proposed 
the  compromise  line  of  36°  30'.  He,  and  not  Clay,  was 
the  real  author  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820. 
North  of  the  compromise  line,  slavery,  except  in  Mis- 
souri, was  not  allowed.  South  of  that  line  slavery  was 
permitted. 

The  long  contest  over  Missouri  seemed  ended.  Maine 
was  at  once  admitted  into  the  Union  and  Missouri  was 
directed  to  form  a  constitution.  The  people  of  Missouri, 
angry  at  the  long  delay,  adopted  a  constitution  which 
forever  forbade  her  legislature  to  interfere  with  slavery 
and  which  prohibited  free  negroes  from  entering  the 
State.  The  North  broke  forth  in  wrath  at  such  a  con- 
stitution and  vowed  never  to  admit  such  a  State  into  the 


NULLIFICATION.  27 

Union.  The  South  accused  the  North  of  bad  faith  in 
securing  the  admission  of  Maine  and  then  keeping  Mis- 
souri out.  There  were  loud  threats  of  disunion,  but 
Clay  brought  forward  a  second  compromise  which  pro- 
vided that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  on  condition  that 
it  would  never  enforce  the  constitution  concerning  free 
negroes.  Missouri  accepted  and  was  admitted  as  a  slave 
State  in  1821. 

XL    THE  BALANCE  OF  POWER. 

For  thirty  years  before  the  Missouri  Compromise  the 
South  was  alwa  s  watchful  to  balance  slave  territory 
against  free  territory.  While  all  the  northwest  territory 
was  given  to  freedom,  every  foot  of  land  south  of  the 
Ohio  river  was  given  to  slavery.  To  keep  the  North 
and  South  equal  in  the  Senate,  the  States  were  admitted 
in  pairs:  Kentucky  and  Vermont,  Tennessee  and  Ohio, 
Louisiana  and  Indiana,  Mississippi  and  Illinois,  Missouri 
and  Maine.  These  States  were  not  admitted  together 
in  point  of  time,  but  the  "  balance  of  power  "  was  clearly 
recognized.  An  extra  Southern  State  was  admitted,  and 
in  1821  there  were  twelve  slave  States  and  twelve  free 
States. 

XII.    NULLIFICATION:  1798-1832. 

For  ten  years  after  the  Missouri  Compromise  the  be- 
lief spread  rapidly  in  the  South  that  the  duties  on 
imported  goods  benefited  the  North  and  injured  the 
South.  The  slave  States,  manufacturing  very  little, 
were  yet  compelled  to  pay  heavy  taxes  on  all  imported 
articles.  Slave  labor  produced  immense  quantities  of 
cotton,  tobacco  and  rice,  and  the  undoubted  interest  of 


28  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

the  South  was  a  free  trade  with  Europe.  South  Caro- 
lina well  represented  that  interest.  From  that  State 
alone  was  sent  more  than  one-fourth  of  all  the  exports 
from  southern  fields.  In  1832  South  Carolina  passed  an 
Ordinance  of  Nullification  which  declared  the  tariff  laws 
"  null,  void,  and  no  law,  not  binding  upon  this  State,  its 
officers  or  citizens." 

Nullification  was  not  a  new  idea  in  1832.  One  day,  in 
the  autumn  of  1798,  Thomas  Jefferson,  William  Nicholas 
and  George  Nicholas  were  talking  about  the  famous 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  lately  passed  by  Congress. 
Jefferson  wished  Virginia  and  Kentucky  to  join  in  a 
strong  protest  against  the  objectionable  laws.  He  got 
from  the  two  brothers  a  solemn  pledge  of  secrecy  and  then 
wrote  the  "  Resolutions  of  '98."  George  Nicholas  pre- 
sented them  to  the  legislature  of  Kentucky.  Jefferson 
sent  a  copy  of  them  to  Madison,  who  then  sat  in  the  leg- 
islature of  Virginia.  Both  States  adopted  the  "  Resolu- 
tions," which  declared  that  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws 
were  "  not  law,  .  .  .  void,  and  of  no  effect,"  and  that 
the  Constitution  was  a  compact.  The  main  purpose  of 
the  Resolutions  was  to  make  a  united  and  vigorous 
appeal  to  public  opinion  against  bad  laws.  Nullification 
in  1798  meant  at  once  a  protest  and  an  appeal  and  not 
secession.  Jefferson  and  his  friends  had  no  thought  of 
disunion.  The  governors  of  Kentucky  and  Virginia  sent 
copies  of  the  Resolutions  to  the  various  States.  The 
five  New  England  States  with  New  Jersey  and  Dela- 
ware sent  back  a  prompt  and  strong  dissent  from  nulli- 
fication. Virginia  built  a  new  armory,  laid  new  war 
taxes  and  drilled  her  militia;  but,  as  not  a  single  State 
had  returned  a  favorable  answer,  Kentucky  and  Virginia, 
in  1799,  saw  fit  to  declare  that  disunion  was  not  meant> 


NULLIFICATION.  2p 

that  only  a  protest  had  been  made,  and  that  love  of  the 
Union  was  strong  in  the  two  States. 

The  feeling  of  disunion  next  appeared  in  New  England 
itself.  For  months  in  1804,  the  political  leaders  there 
plotted  for  disunion.  Four  causes  led  to  this:  The 
government  of  the  United  States  had  bought  Louisiana; 
had  reduced  the  army  to  a  handful;  had  almost  ruined 
the  navy,  and  New  England  was  nearly  powerless  in 
public  affairs.  Massachusetts  complained  that  the  South 
had  850,000  slaves,  represented  by  fifteen  votes  in  Con- 
gress, and  that  if  new  States  from  the  Louisiana  Ter- 
ritory were  admitted,  the  South  would  surely  control 
the  Union.  Timothy  Pickering,  Aaron  Burr  and  other 
leaders  advocated  a  new  Union  of  the  free  States  with 
New  Brunswick  and  with  Nova  Scotia.  But  the  people 
would  not  support  their  leaders  and  the  plan  of  disunion 
failed. 

Lack  of  attachment  to  the  Union  next  showed  itself 
west  of  the  mountains.  In  1804,  after  his  duel  with 
Hamilton,  Burr  fled  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  proposed 
to  the  British  minister  to  break  up  the  Union  if  England 
would  furnish  money  and  arms  to  the  Western  men. 
From  Philadelphia  he  went  by  way  of  the  ocean  to 
Georgia,  thence  across  the  State  to  South  Carolina  and 
back  to  Washington.  Here  General  Wilkinson  intro- 
duced him  to  many  leading  men  from  Kentucky  and 
Louisiana.  About  this  time,  the  plan  to  break  up  the 
Union  was  told  to  the  French  minister  and  shortly  after- 
wards Burr  went  west  to  Pittsburg,  down  the  Ohio  to 
Blennerhasset's  beautiful  island  home,  and  then  south- 
west through  the  leading  towns  of  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee to  New  Orleans.  Burr  talked  with  Andrew 
Jackson,  Henry  Clay  and  all  the  prominent  men  and 


3O  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

reported  that  the  West  was  ready  for  separation ;  but 
when  President  Jefferson  sent  swift  officers  over  the 
mountains  to  arrest  him  and  had  him  tried  for  treason, 
the  entire  plan  of  a  Mississippi  valley  republic  was 
dropped. 

Nullification  next  appeared  in  New  England  in  1814. 
The  people  of  that  section  had  for  years  been  dissatisfied 
with  the  general  government  and  for  two  years  had 
sternly  opposed  the  war  with  England.  The  Massachu- 
setts legislature  called  the  Constitution  a  compact,  de- 
clared for  nullification,  and  voted  t@  raise  $1,000,000  for 
a  State  army  of  10,000  men.  Delegates  from  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  met  in  conven- 
tion at  Hartford,  and,  after  a  session  of  three  weeks r 
voted  that  the  national  government  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  retain  the  tariff  duties  collected  in  New  Eng- 
land. Behind  this  demand  was  the  distinct  intention  to 
break  up  the  Union.  To  give  way  to  this  demand  was 
to  bankrupt  the  government,  and  to  refuse  was  to  bring 
certain  disunion.  Fortunately  the  brilliant  victory  won 
by  General  Jackson  at  New  Orleans  and  the  close  of  the 
war  gave  the  people  new  confidence  in  the  Union,  and 
the  sentiment  of  secession  not  only  rapidly  disappeared, 
but  became  a  reproach  and  a  byword  to  those  who  had 
held  it. 

The  last,  and  by  far  the  greatest,  attempt  at  nullifica- 
tion was  made  by  South  Carolina  in  1832.  Several  facts 
led  to  this  bold  attack  on  the  Union.  In  1824  the  North 
and  West  combined  to  pass  a  tariff  law  which  was 
strongly  opposed  by  the  entire  South.  Webster  him- 
self opposed  it,  and  John  Randolph  threatened  resistance 
by  force.  Three  years  later,  Robert  Turnbull,  of  South 
Carolina,  published  thirty-one  essays  on  the  "Crisis,"" 


NULLIFICATION.  3! 

and  advocated  secession  if  justice  was  not  done  to  the 
South  with  respect  to  the  tariff"  laws  and  to  slavery.  He, 
and  not  Calhoun,  was  the  real  author  of  nullification  in 
South  Carolina.  In  1828,  Congress  passed  a  law  still 
more  offensive  to  the  South,  called  the  "  Tariff  of  Abom- 
inations." Five  States  at  once  protested  against  the  law. 
A  large  mass  meeting  in  South  Carolina  resolved  against 
any  further  trade  with  the  West  and  the  North.  Turn- 
bull  now  actively  urged  nullification  and  the  new  doc- 
trine grew  in  favor  at  the  South. 

The  "  great  debate  "  between  the  North  and  the  South 
on  the  question  of  nullification  took  place  in  the  Senate 
chamber  at  Washington  in  1830.  On  that  memorable 
twenty-sixth  of  January,  every  part  of  the  room  was 
densely  crowded  with  senators,  various  public  officers 
and  visitors.  Many  members  of  the  House  were  pres- 
ent. John  C.  Calhoun  was  president  of  the  Senate. 
Several  Southern  men  were  grouped  together  for  mutual 
support.  A  number  of  Massachusetts  men  stood  in  one 
part  of  the  chamber,  confident  in  the  patriotism  and 
power  of  their  great  senator.  Webster  spoke  for  the 
North,  Hayne  of  South  Carolina  for  the  South.  Hayne 
was  a  man  of  fine  and  lofty  character,  courteous,  frank 
and  sincere.  He  ranked  high  as  a  lawyer  and  an  orator. 
Webster's  very  look  expressed  force  and  power.  His 
abundant  black  hair,  the  superb,  crag-like  brow,  the 
dark,  piercing,  deep-set  eyes  and  the  firm  lines  of  the 
massive  face  marked  him  as  a  great  antagonist.  Hayne, 
with  clear  statement  and  persuasive  oratory,  had  said  that 
a  State  could  nullify  a  law  of  Congress  and  that  the 
Constitution  was  nothing  but  a  compact  or  a  contract. 
Webster  denied  the  power  of  peaceable  nullification  and 
asserted  that  the  Constitution  was  a  great  charter  of 


32  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

government,  "  made  for  the  people,  made  by  the  people, 
and  answerable  to  the  people."  He  showed  that  nulli- 
fication would  make  the  Union  "the  servant  of  four-and- 
twenty  masters,  of  different  wills  and  different  purposes, 
and  yet  bound  to  obey  all."  His  speech  was  a  great 
plea  for  the  power  and  continuance  of  the  Union.  He 
took  the  vague  and  unformed  sentiment  of  nationality 
and  breathed  into  it  the  breath  of  life.  His  speech  was 
"  like  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution." 

But  the  "  nullifiers "  were  not  dismayed.  Shortly 
after  the  debate  in  the  Senate,  they  planned  to  win 
President  Jackson  to  their  side.  He  was  invited  to  a 
banquet  in  memory  of  Jefferson  and  was  asked  to  deliver 
an  address.  He  astonished  the  "  nullifiers  "  by  the  toast 
which  he  gave  —  "The  Federal  Union,  it  must  be  pre- 
served,"—  and  he  spoke  strongly  for  the  Union.  On 
July  4,  1831,  the  States  Rights  party  held  a  great  cele- 
bration in  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  A  huge  build- 
ing in  the  form  of  a  pentagon,  and  seating  12,000  peo- 
ple, had  been  erected  for  the  occasion.  Festoons  of 
flowers  and  evergreens  decorated  the  interior,  and  with- 
out were  planted  pine,  hickory  and  palmetto  trees.  The 
ladies  of  the  city  also  gave  a  beautiful  banner.  Hayne 
delivered  the  oration.  In  the  same  city  and  on  the  same 
day,  a  Union  meeting  was  held.  Several  thousand  per- 
sons, with  waving  banners  and  bands  of  music,  marched 
in  procession  to  a  church,  where  speeches  for  the  Union 
were  made  and  where  Washington's  Farewell  Address 
was  read.  President  Jackson  sent  down  a  special  letter 
which  expressed  his  love  for  the  Union.  Dinner  was 
served  in  a  great  building  fifty  feet  wide  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  long.  Festoons  of  flowers  and  ever- 
greens within,  and  trees  without,  also  adorned  the 


NULLIFICATION.  33 

structure.  Three  full-rigged  vessels  were  placed  over 
the  front  of  the  building.  Above  the  archway  were  the 
words  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship." 

In  November,  1832,  162  delegates  met  in  convention 
in  South  Carolina  and  declared  certain  tariff  laws  "null, 
void,  and  no  law."  The  State  armed  and  drilled  20,000 
men  and  built  arsenals  and  depots  for  supplies.  In 
December  of  the  same  year,  President  Jackson  issued  a 
proclamation  to  the  rebellious  State  in  which  he  denied 
the  power  of  nullification,  and  warned  South  Carolina  to 
yield.  Hayne,  who  was  now  governor  of  that  State,  issued 
a  proclamation  defying  the  President.  Calhoun  took 
Ilayne's  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  de- 
fend nullification.  The  President  now  asked  Congress 
for  extra  power  to  enforce  the  tariff  laws.  This  was 
granted  by  the  "  Force  Bill,"  which  became  a  law  in 
March,  1833.  In  the  meantime,  Henry  Clay  proposed 
and  secured  the  passage  of  a  new  tariff  law  which  was 
acceptable  to  the  South.  In  view  of  the  firm  stand  of 
the  President  and  of  the  compromise  by  Clay,  South 
Carolina  yielded,  and  repealed  her  ordinance  of  nulli- 
fication. , 

The  general  result  of  the  whole  controversy  was  a  vic- 
tory for  the  Union.  As  a  protest  against  unpopular  laws, 
nullification  had  succeeded;  as  a  principle,  it  had  failed. 
It  never  afterwards  was  used  even  as  a  form  of  protest; 
but  the  doctrines  behind  it  —  that  the  Constitution  is  a 
compact  and  that  each  State  is  sovereign  —  spread 
throughout  the  entire  South  until  the  opening  of  the 
Civil  War. 


34  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

XIII.     "OLD  NAT'S  WAR:"  1831. 

In  1831,  a  band  of  negroes  in  Virginia,  under  the  lead 
of  Nat  Turner,  rose  against  their  masters,  murdered 
fifty-five  persons  and  became  the  terror  of  the  whole 
State.  Turner  was  born  in  1800  and  was  owned  by  a 
wealthy  planter.  In  1830,  his  master  hired  him  out  to 
a  wealthy  planter  named  Joseph  Travis,  who  treated  the 
slave  well.  But  Nat  was  not  content  to  be  a  slave  and 
soon  ran  away.  He  had  early  learned  to  read  and  write 
and  also  became  deeply  religious.  He  had  a  vivid  vision 
of  a  great  combat  between  white  spirits  and  black  spirits 
far  up  in  the  sky.  He  thought  himself  a  prophet  and 
believed  God  had  given  him  a  mission  to  free  the 
negroes.  He  avoided  a  crowd,  was  dreamy  and  never 
laughed.  He  was  below  the  usual  height,  feeble  in 
body,  with  thin  hair,  flat  nose,  and  had  a  shrewd  ex- 
pression. 

An  eclipse  in  1831  seemed  to  Turner  a  visible  sign 
from  Heaven  to  fulfill  his  mission.  He  held  a  secret 
meeting  with  five  other  negroes  and  they  agreed  to  spare 
neither  age  nor  sex.  The  band  soon  numbered  over 
sixty,  making  a  raid  of  about  twenty  miles  through 
Southampton  county  and  murdering  fifty-five  white  per- 
sons. Swift  companies  of  white  men  quickly  formed 
and  the  whole  southeastern  part  of  Virginia  was  in 
arms.  A  reward  of  $1,100  was  offered  for  Turner's 
capture.  For  six  weeks  he  lay  hid  under  a  pile  of  rails, 
but  was  at  last  caught.  He  and  twelve  other  negroes 
were  tried,  convicted  and  hung.  This  murderous  raid 
sent  a  thrill  of  terror  into  every  Southern  home.  Nu- 
merous plots  in  other  parts  of  the  South  were  also 
reported,  and  every  planter  felt  that  Southern  society 


THE    ABOLITIONISTS.  35 

rested  on  a  volcano.  Virginia  passed  severe  laws  against 
the  negroes,  forbade  their  meetings  and  ordered  the  ar- 
rest of  their  preachers. 

This  terrible  fear  explains  in  part  why  the  South  so 
bitterly  opposed  all  the  efforts  of  the  Northern  abolition- 
ists. In  1835,  President  Jackson  asked  Congress  to  close 
the  mails  to  all  papers,  pamphlets  and  books  which 
might  lead  to  slave  insurrection.  John  C.  Calhoun  in- 
troduced such  a  bill  in  the  Senate,  where  it  was  lost  by 
only  six  votes.  The  mail  bags  were  broken  open  in 
South  Carolina  and  a  bonfire  was  made  of  the  abolition 
documents.  Petitions  to  Congress  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  met  with  violent  opposition.  Ex-President  John 
Quincy  Adams  presented  to  the  House  hundreds  of 
petitions  against  slavery.  One  day  he  presented  511, 
representing  300,000  persons  at  the  North.  The  whole 
House  was  in  an  uproar.  Cries  of  "Censure  him!" 
"  Expel  him! "  arose.  After  three  days  of  passionate  de- 
bate and  violent  abuse,  Adams  got  the  floor  and  made  a 
great  speech  for  the  right  of  petition.  But  the  House 
adopted  the  "  Atherton  gag  rule,"  which  provided  that 
all  petitions  be  laid  on  the  table  "  without  being  debated, 
printed  or  referred."  This  rule  held  from  1836  to  1844. 

XIV.     THE  ABOLITIONISTS:  1830-1840. 

The  first  leading  abolitionist  was  Benjamin  Lundy. 
From  1820  to  1830  he  traveled  over  25,000  miles,  5,000 
miles  afoot,  gave  hundreds  of  addresses,  and  visited  nine- 
teen States,  Canada,  Hayti,  Texas  and  Mexico.  He 
organized  many  abolition  societies  and  published  a  paper 
c  illed  "  The  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation."  By 
his  efforts  the  first  national  abolition  convention  was  held 


36  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

at  Baltimore  in  1826.    He  died  in  1839,  a^ter  having  given 
nearly  his  whole  life  to  free  the  slaves. 

Of  all  the  abolitionists,  none  stands  out  more  clearly 
than  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  In  1830  he  was  tried  and 
convicted  in  Baltimore  for  publishing  an  article  on  slav- 
ery. He  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  $50,  and  not 
being  able  to  do  so  was  lodged  in  jail  for  seven  weeks. 
While  in  prison  he  wrote  a  fierce  letter  against  slavery. 
After  leaving  Baltimore  he  gave  several  lectures  on  his 
way  from  Philadelphia  to  Boston.  At  this  city,  on  Jan- 
uary i,  1831,  he  issued  the  Liberator,  the  most  remark- 
able paper  ever  published  in  the  United  States.  On  its 
very  front  sheet  was  the  picture  of  an  auction  where 
"  slaves,  horses  and  other  cattle  "  were  offered  for  sale, 
and  near  this  was  seen  a  whipping  post  at  which  a  slave 
was  being  flogged.  In  the  background  was  the  Capitol 
at  Washington  with  the  flag  unfurled  above  the  dome. 
In  the  first  issue  of  the  Liberator  he  wrote:  "I  will  be 
as  harsh  as  truth  and  as  uncompromising  as  justice. 
.  .  .  I  am  in  earnest.  I  will  not  equivocate  —  I  will 
not  excuse,  I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be 
heard."  In  1835  at  a  meeting  held  by  some  abolition- 
ists in  Boston,  a  mob  seized  him,  put  a  rope  around  his 
body,  dragged  him  through  the  streets,  and  would  have 
taken  his  life  had  not  the  mayor  rescued  him  and  placed 
him  in  jail  for  protection.  When  President  Tyler  visited 
Boston,  Garrison  published  two  addresses.  In  one  he 
asked  the  President  to  free  his  slaves.  In  the  other  he 
addressed  the  slaves  of  the  South  as  follows :  "  If  you 
come  to  us  and  are  hungry,  we  will  feed  you;  if  thirsty, 
we  will  give  you  drink;  if  naked,  we  will  clothe  you; 
if  sick,  will  administer  to  your  necessities;  if  in  prison, 
we  will  visit  you;  if  you  will  need  a  hiding  place  from 


THE    ABOLITIONISTS.  37 

the  face  of  the  pursuer,  we  will  provide  one  that  even 
blood-hounds  will  not  search  out." 

The  Liberator  had  a  small  circulation,  but  it  roused 
the  wrath  of  every  Southern  planter.  South  Carolina 
offered  a  reward  of  $1,500  to  convict  any  person  found 
circulating  the  Liberator  in  that  State.  Nor  was  this 
paper  without  effect  at  the  North.  Nine  years  after  the 
first  issue,  there  were  2,000  abolition  societies  wdth  200,000 
members  enrolled. 

While  Garrison  was  stirring  the  South  to  its  center, 
Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  at  Alton,  Illinois,  paid  with  his  life 
his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  abolition.  Lovejoy  was 
born  in  Maine  and  graduated  from  a  small  college  in 
that  State.  In  1826  he  went  to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  as 
a  teacher,  but  soon  became  the  editor  of  a  religious 
paper.  Later  he  removed  to  Alton,  Illinois.  While  he 
was  here  a  case  in  the  courts  aroused  his  indignation. 
A  negro  had  aided  two  quarreling  sailors  to  escape  from 
an  officer.  For  this  the  negro  was  arrested,  and  on  be- 
ing told  that  his  punishment  would  be  five  years  in 
prison,  he  broke  away  from  the  officers  and  stabbed  one 
of  them  fatally.  He  was  recaptured,  but  was  taken 
from  the  jail  by  a  mob  and  slowly  burned  to  death 
at  the  stake.  For  twenty  minutes  the  flames  coiled  and 
hissed  about  him  and  he  died  after  the  most  frightful 
agony.  Judge  Lawless  told  the  grand  jury  to  do  nothing 
with  the  murderers.  Lovejoy  in  his  paper  commented 
severely  on  the  heartless  judge.  A  public  meeting  was 
soon  called  to  stop  the  further  issues  of  Lovejoy's  paper. 
To  the  surprise  of  the  crowd,  Lovejoy  appeared  at  the 
meeting.  He  told  them  that  his  conscience  would  not 
let  him  stop  in  his  course  and  that  he  spoke  only  for 


FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

truth  and  justice.  His  speech  made  a  great  impression, 
but  it  was  not  lasting. 

About  this  time  he  ordered  a  new  printing  press,  and 
it  reached  Alton  in  the  morning  of  November  7,  1837. 
The  mob  blew  horns  to  notify  all  that  it  had  come.  At 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  about  thirty  men  came  out  of 
a  saloon,  went  to  the  printing  office  and  demanded  the 
press.  Lovejoy,  with  seven  others  within  the  building, 
refused.  The  mob  then  threw  stones  through  the  win- 
dows, and  both  sides  fired  shots.  Soon  was  heard  the 
cry,  "  Burn  them  out ! "  and  a  ladder  was  brought  for 
that  purpose.  Lovejoy  now  came  out  of  the  building 
and  was  at  once  shot  and  killed.  The  mob  then  broke 
the  press  in  pieces  and  threw  the  type  and  fragments 
into  the  Mississippi  river.  The  next  day  the  body  of 
Lovejoy  was  borne  home  with  scoffing  to  his  wife  and 
children.  He  lies  buried  on  a  bluff  overlooking  the  great 
river. 

News  of  this  tragedy  soon  traveled  over  the  North. 
W.  E.  Channing,  the  noted  minister  of  Boston,  together 
with  one  hundred  other  citizens,  called  a  meeting  at  Faneuil 
Hall  on  December  8, 1837.  A  great  audience  was  present. 
James  T.  Austin,  the  attorney-general  of  Massachusetts, 
spoke  and  said  that  Lovejoy  "  died  as  the  fool  dieth." 
Wendell  Phillips  sat  in  that  audience.  He  was  unknown, 
but  he  quickly  stepped  to  the  platform  and  with  flashing 
eye  and  intense  force  he  said  of  Austin,  "for  the  senti- 
ments he  has  uttered,  on  soil  consecrated  by  the  prayers 
of  the  Puritans  and  the  blood  of  patriots,  the  earth 
should  have  yawned  and  swallowed  him  up."  He  then 
followed  with  a  speech  which  placed  him  in  the  front 
rank  of  American  orators. 


THE    LIBERTY    PARTY.  39 

The  abolitionists  were  very  active  all  through  the 
North  from  1830  to  1840.  By  1840  there  were  over 
2,000  abolition  societies  and  200,000  members.  Thou- 
sands of  speeches  were  made  and  millions  of  documents 
sent  through  the  mails  for  the  cause  of  abolition.  Lowell 
and  Whittier  wrote  poems  for  the  new  cause.  Emerson 
said  the  abolitionists  "  might  be  wrong-headed,  but 
they  were  wrong-headed  in  the  right  direction."  But 
active  as  they  were,  they  formed  only  a  small  part  of 
the  population.  Not  one  man  in  ten  was  an  abolitionist. 

At  first  they  were  hated  and  despised.  Nearly  all 
classes  of  society  were  against  them.  They  were  re- 
garded as  fanatics  and  disturbers  of  the  peace.  Churches 
and  halls  were  refused  them.  Mobs  broke  in  on  their 
meetings  and  stoned  their  speakers.  But  gradually  the 
tide  turned.  The  high  character  and  purpose  of  the 
abolitionists  compelled  a  respectful  hearing,  and  with  this 
hearing  thousands  of  new  abolitionists  sprang  up. 

XV.     THE  LIBERTY  PARTY:  1840-1843. 

Out  of  all  this  agitation  by  the  abolitionists  arose  a 
new  political  party.  In  1840  the  anti-slavery  men  held 
a  national  convention  in  New  York  to  form  the  Liberty 
Party,  and  delegates  were  present  from  all  the  New 
England  States,  together  with  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana.  The  convention  voted 
to  nominate  a  President  and  Vice-President  and  urged 
all  members  to  vote  for  township,  county  and  State  of- 
ficers who  were  pledged  against  slavery.  The  new 
party  cast  only  6,784  votes  for  James  G.  Birney  in  1840. 
But  there  were  in  fact  70,000  abolitionists  then  in  the 
North.  Nine-tenths  of  these  did  not  vote  for  their  party 


40  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

on  account  of  disagreement  as  to  the  methods  and  prin- 
ciples. During  the  next  three  years,  the  various  factions 
in  the  Liberty  Party  settled  their  differences,  and  in 

1843  a   thousand   delegates,    representing    every   free 
State    except   New  Hampshire,  met  in  convention    at 
Buffalo,  New  York,  and  nominated  James  G.  Birney  for 
President.     He  received  over  62,000  votes.     In  no  State 
did  the  abolitionists  number  more  than  one-tenth  of  the 
voters.     But   the  noteworthy  fact  of  the  campaign  of 

1844  was  that  the  Liberty  Party  threw  the  election  into 
the  hands  of  the  Democrats,  who  had  openly  declared 
for  more  slave  territory.     This  result  was  brought  about 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  where  Polk  had  received 
only  5,000  more  votes  than  Clay.     In  that  State  the 
Liberty  Party  had  received  15,000  votes  and  these  were 
drawn   largely   from   the    Whig   Party.      This   result 
brought  forth  a  storm  of  indignation  from  the  Whigs,  and 
the  Liberty  Party  soon  disbanded. 

XVI.    THE  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 

In  1821  the  Spanish  colonists  of  Mexico  separated 
their  country  from  Spain  and  three  years  later  set  up  a 
republican  form  of  government.  Texas  was  one  of  the 
States  of  Mexico  and  had  a  mixed  and  scattered  popu- 
lation of  Spaniards,  Indians  and  Americans.  In  1830 
the  President  of  Mexico  issued  his  decree  that  further 
immigration  from  the  United  States  should  stop,  that 
convicts  from  the  prisons  of  Mexico  should  be  settled  in 
Texas,  and  that  heavy  taxes  should  be  paid  to  the  Mexi- 
can government.  With  scarcely  2,000  able-bodied  men, 
Texas  at  once  revolted  and  in  1833  adopted  a  constitu- 
tion of  its  own.  Three  years  later  Mexico  tried  to  set 


THE    ANNEXATION    OF   TEXAS.  4! 

aside  the  Texan  self-government,  but  the  people  again 
rebelled  and  declared  their  independence  on  March  2, 
1836.  The  next  year  the  United  States,  France,  Eng- 
land and  Belgium  recognized  the  new  republic  of  Texas. 
In  1836  the  total  population  of  Texas  was  only  100,000, 
and  but  3,370  votes  were  cast  that  year  for  officers  of 
the  government.  The  army  had  but  2,200  men,  and  the 
navy  consisted  of  four  vessels  carrying  twenty-nine  can- 
nons. The  money  was  nearly  worthless,  there  were  no 
roads,  no  post-offices,  no  jails,  no  courts. 

But  with  all  these  disadvantages  the  bold  Texan  ran- 
gers were  more  than  a  match  for  the  Mexican  soldiers 
sent  against  them.  Under  the  brilliant  leadership  of 
Sam.  Houston  their  independence  was  maintained  for 
years.  General  Sam.  Houston  was  a  man  after  Jack- 
son's own  heart.  He  was  born  in  Virginia  but  removed 
to  Tennessee.  Before  he  was  thirty-five  he  was  repre- 
sentative in  Congress  and  governor  of  the  State.  On 
account  of  home  troubles  he  resigned  the  governorship, 
fled  to  the  Indians,  adopted  their  habits,  became  a  chief, 
and  roamed  for  three  years  with  them  on  the  Western 
plains.  He  joined  the  Texans  in  their  struggle  for  in- 
dependence, became  their  general,  was  elected  President 
of  the  new  republic,  and  when  Texas  sought  admission 
to  the  United  States  he  appeared  in  the  Capitol  at 
Washington,  bearing  in  his  hand  the  gift  of  his  great 
State. 

Texas  had  no  wish  be  a  free  and  independent  nation. 
Bands  of  settlers  from  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  had 
gone  into  Texas  and  the  sentiment  was  strongly  in  favor 
of  admission  into  the  Union.  A  Texas  envoy  had  urged 
President  Van  Buren  to  declare  annexation,  but  fearing 
opposition  the  President  refused.  Soon  afterwards  the 


42  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

Senate  voted  against  annexation.  In  1837  Webster 
voiced  the  opinion  at  the  North  in  opposition  to  the  ad- 
mission of  Texas.  For  six  years  the  question  slept,  but 
Southern  men  were  determined  to  add  Texas  to  the 
slave  area  of  the  Union.  In  the  summer  of  1843  the 
intrigue  for  annexation  was  in  full  progress.  President 
Tyler  was  in  favor  of  the  plan.  Andrew  Jackson  used 
his  wide  influence  for  it.  The  legislatures  of  Tennessee, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi  declared  for  annexation.  In 
March,  1844,  John  C.  Calhoun  was  made  Secretary  of 
State,  and  by  his  management  the  plan  moved  forward 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  In  April  he  promised  the  army 
and  navy  of  the  United  States  to  aid  Texas  against 
Mexico.  In  the  same  month  he  sent  a  treaty  of  annexa- 
tion to  the  Senate,  which  voted  against  the  admission  of 
Texas.  The  question  was  at  once  thrown  into  the  presi- 
dential campaign  of  1844. 

XVII.     THE  CAMPAIGN  AND  ELECTION  OF 

1844. 

The  Whig  national  convention  met  at  Baltimore  on 
May  i.  Thousands  were  present  and  Henry  Clay  was 
nominated  for  President  by  acclamation.  In  April  he 
had  written  a  letter  against  annexation.  As  the  cam- 
paign went  on  he  became  alarmed.  He  was  surrounded 
by  Southern  men  who  wished  more  slave  territory.  In 
August  he  wrote  his  famous  "  Alabama"  letter,  in  which 
he  stated  that  he  wished  to  annex  Texas  "  upon  just  and 
fair  terms,"  and  that  "the  subject  of  slavery  ought  not  to 
affect  the  question  one  way  or  the  other."  This  offended 
the  Northern  Whigs  and  defeated  him.  That  letter 
drove  enough  Whigs  into  the  Liberty  Party  in  New 


THE    WAR    WITH    MEXICO.  43 

York  to  carry  the  State  for  the  Democratic  Party,  and 
on  New  York  hinged  the  election  for  President. 

The  Democratic  national  convention  met  at  Baltimore 
on  May  27.  It  boldly  declared  for  "  the  re-annexation 
of  Texas  at  the  earliest  practicable  period  "  and  Polk 
was  nominated  for  President.  After  the  election,  the 
Democrats  claimed  that  the  people  had  declared  for  an- 
nexation, and  Congress,  at  its  next  session  in  December, 
1845,  admitted  Texas  as  a  State. 

XVIII.     THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO:  1846-1848. 

A  boundary  line  between  Texas  and  Mexico  was  at 
once  the  subject  of  dispute.  The  United  States  claimed 
<ill  the  land  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  Mexico  held  that  the 
Nueces  river  was  the  rightful  boundary.  Texas  had, 
indeed,  claimed  this  strip,  but  the  claim  was  only  asserted 
and  never  established.  Garret  Davis,  of  Kentucky, 
said  in  the  House  af  Washington  in  1846,  that  "  No 
Texan  magistrate  was  ever  seen,  no  Texan  law  was 
ever  obeyed,  no  Texan  jurisdiction  was  ever  asserted,  no 
Texan  rule  in  any  form,  in  this  extent  of  territory,  was 
known.  All  was  Mexican  from  the  beginning."  Presi- 
dent Polk  threw  4,000  troops  into  the  disputed  territory. 
A  Mexican  army  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  and  de- 
manded the  withdrawal  of  the  American  troops.  In 
April,  1840,  sixty-three  dragoons  of  the  United  States 
army  were  attacked  by  a  larger  force  of  Mexican  troops 
and  seventeen  Americans  were  killed  and  wounded  and 
the  others  forced  to  surrender.  Swift  messengers  car- 
ried the  news  to  Washington,  and  on  May  n,  1846, 
President  Polk  sent  to  Congress  a  message  in  which  he 
stated,  "  Mexico  has  passed  the  boundary  of  the  United 


44  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

States  ....  and  shed  American  blood  upon 
American  soil.  War  exists,  and  exists  by  the  act  of 
Mexico  herself."  Two  days  later  Congress  passed  a 
law  giving  the  President  complete  power  to  call  out, 
arm,  organize  and  equip  50,000  men.  The  law  declared 
that  "  war  existed  by  the  act  of  Mexico."  For  the  next 
two  years  the  armies  of  the  United  States  passed  rapidly 
from  one  brilliant  victory  to  another,  and  at  last  stood 
conquerors  in  the  city  of  Mexico  itself.  President  Polk 
proclaimed  peace  on  July  4,  1848.  The  war  had  lasted 
two  years,  had  cost  $130,000,000,  and  had  added  a  vast 
domain  to  the  Union.  It  had  been  denounced  in  the 
North  and  East,  but  was  popular  in  the  South  and 
West.  "  The  glory  of  the  war  was  the  glory  of  the 
South,"  and  that  section  fully  believed  that  a  great  em- 
pire had  been  added  to  the  area  of  slavery.  In  1845 
Macaulay,  m  Parliament,  said  of  the  United  States, 
"  That  nation  is  the  champion  and  upholder  of  slavery. 
They  seek  to  extend  slavery  with  -more  energy  than  was 
ever  exerted  by  any  other  nation  to  diffuse  civilization." 
With  an  army  in  the  Mexican  capital,  the  United 
States  compelled  that  nation  to  give  up  900,000  square 
miles  of  its  territory.  Every  foot  of  that  great  area  was 
free  from  slavery.  The  Mexicans  anxiously  asked  that 
the  treaty  should  torbid  slavery  in  the  ceded  territory. 
The  representative  of  the  United  States  told  them  that 
if  the  land  "  were  increased  ten-fold  in  value,  and,  in  ad- 
dition to  that,  covered  a  foot  thick  with  pure  gold,  on, 
the  single  condition  that  slavery  should  be  forever  ex- 
cluded," he  would  not  "  entertain  the  offer  for  a  moment, 
nor  even  think  ot  sending  it  to  his  government.  No 
American  President  would  dare  to  submit  such  a  treaty 
to  the  Senate." 


THE    WIJJNIOT   PROVISO.  45 

XIX.    THE  WILMOT  PROVISO. 

The  war  had  not  been  in  progress  three  months  when 
both  North  and  South  clearly  saw  that  territory  would 
be  taken  from  Mexico.  A  few  men  at  the  North  reso- 
lutely determined  that  not  a  foot  of  that  territory  should 
be  given  to  slavery.  In  August,  1846,  when  Congress 
was  considering  a  bill  to  put  $2,000,000  into  the  Presi- 
dent's hands  to  secure  more  land  from  Mexico,  David 
Wilmot  moved  a  proviso  to  the  bill  making  it  "  an  ex- 
press and  fundamental  condition  to  the  acquisition  of  any 
territory  from  Mexico,  that  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  shall  ever  exist  therein." 

"  His  amendment  made  his  name  familiar  at  once 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Republic.  No 
question  had  arisen  since  the  slavery  agitation  of  1820 
that  was  so  elaborately  debated.  The  Wilmot  Proviso 
absorbed  the  attention  of  Congress  for  a  longer  time 
than  the  Missouri  Compromise;  it  produced  a  wider  and 
deeper  excitement  in  the  country,  and  it  threatened  a 
more  serious  danger  to  the  peace,  and  integrity  of  the 
Union."  The  Wilmot  Proviso  did  not  become  a  law, 
but  it  raised  up  a  powerful  anti-slavery  party  at  the 
North. 

XX.    THE   CAMPAIGN  AND  ELECTION  OF 

1848. 

The  Democrats  and  Whigs  were  the  two  great  po- 
litical parties  in  the  election  of  1848.  The  Democratic 
national  convention  met  at  Baltimore  on  May  22. 
New  York  sent  two  opposing  delegations  —  called  the 
Hunkers  and  the  Barnburners.  The  Barnburners  were 


46  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

pledged  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  When  the  convention 
voted  to  admit  both  delegations,  and  so  offend  neither, 
both  withdrew.  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  was  then 
nominated  for  President  on  a  platform  which  carefully 
avoided  the  slavery  question. 

The  Whig  national  convention  met  at  Philadelphia  in 
June  and  nominated  General  Zachary  Taylor  for  Presi- 
dent on  a  platform  which  was  silent  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion. Webster  used  his  great  influence  to  elect  Taylor. 

In  August  the  Free  Soil  Party  met  in  a  great  conven- 
tion at  Buffalo,  New  York.  Four  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  delegates  represented  eighteen  States.  They 
nominated  Martin  Van  Buren  for  President,  and  adopted 
a  bold  and  clear  anti-slavery  platform.  They  declared 
for  "free  soil  to  a  free  people"  and  that  "Congress 
has  no  more  power  to  make  a  slave  than  to  make  a 
king;  to  establish  slavery  than  to  establish  a  monarchy." 
They  threw  out  a  challenge  to  the  South  by  the  declara- 
tion, "  We  accept  the  issue  which  the  slave-power  has 
forced  upon  us;  and  to  their  demand  for  more  slave 
States  and  more  slave  territory,  our  calm  but  final 
answer  is,  no  more  slave  States  and  no  more  slave  ter- 
ritory. There  must  be  no  more  compromises  with  slav- 
ery; if  made,  they  must  be  repealed." 

In  the  election  that  followed,  the  Barnburners  in  New 
York  withdrew  their  support  from  Cass  and  voted  for 
Van  Buren.  This  gave  the  thirty-six  electoral  votes  of 
that  State  to  Taylor,  and  on  New  Yoik  again  hinged 
the  election  of  the  President.  Taylor  and  Cass  each 
carried  fifteen  States.  The  Free  Soil  Party  did  not 
carry  a  single  State,  but  it  turned  every  mind  to  the 
great  question  of  slavery. 


THE    COMPROMISE    OF    1850.  47 

XXI.    POLITICAL  EXCITEMENT  DURING 

1849. 

During  the  year  that  followed  — 1849 —  a  steady  rise 
of  excitement  marked  both  North  and  South.  Almost 
every  legislature  in  the  Southern  States  had  declared 
against  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  every  Northern  State, 
except  Iowa,  had  declared  in  favor  of  it.  In  January,  1849, 
over  eighty  Southern  members  of  Congress  at  Wash- 
ington met  in  secret  with  doors  locked,  and  adopted  an 
address  to  the  South.  They  declared  Congress  could  not 
forbid  slavery  in  the  Territories,  and  they  accused  the 
North  of  violating  the  fugitive  slave  law.  About  the  same 
time,  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  voiced  the  feeling  of  the 
South  when  he  said  to  the  North,  "  We  have  the  right 
to  call  on  you  to  give  your  blood  to  maintain  the  slaves 
of  the  South  in  bondage.  Gentlemen,  deceive  not  your- 
selves ;  you  cannot  deceive  others.  This  is  a  pro-slavery 
government.  Slavery  is  stamped  on  its  heart  —  the 
Constitution." 


XXII.    THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850. 

Congress  met,  amid  growing  excitement,  on  Monday, 
December  3,  1849.  Both  sections  had  sent  up  men  of 
the  most  marked  ability.  There  appeared  Jefferson 
Davis,  the  future  President  of  a  slave  republic;  Sam. 
Houston,  of  brilliant  and  romantic  history;  Thomas 
Benton,  for  thirty  years  a  senator  from  Missouri ;  Pierre 
Soule",  the  eloquent  senator  from  Louisiana;  William  H. 
Seward,  the  statesman  of  anti-slavery  men;  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  the  aggressive  advocate  of  freedom ;  and  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  who  was,  perhaps,  the  strongest  debater  ever 


40  FREEDOM    AND   SLAVERY. 

in  Congress.  But  above  all  these  appeared  three  men 
with  greater  reputation,  wider  influence  and  longer  ex- 
perience in  public  affairs.  Each  was  over  seventy  years 
of  age,  had  had  a  national  reputation  for  thirty  years, 
and  was  known  in  Europe  and  America.  These  three 
men  were  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun. 

Webster  was  the  ablest  of  the  three.  For  years 
more  than  50,000  lawyers  had  acknowledged  him  as 
their  leader.  No  man  stood  higher  as  a  statesman.  He 
had  entered  public  life  in  1813  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  had  served  nineteen  years  as 
a  senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  had  been  Secretary 
of  State.  His  long  experience  in  public  affairs,  and  his 
high  reputation  as  a  lawyer,  as  an  orator  and  as  a  states- 
man, gave  him  a  wide  and  strong  influence  in  the  thirty 
States.  He  was  especially  admired  by  the  higher  circles, 
and  his  position  on  the  slavery  question  was  studied  by 
millions.  On  March  7  he  spoke  on  that  subject,  and 
threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence  for  the  Com- 
promise of  1850.  He  struck  a  giant's  blow  against  free- 
dom, but  he  sincerely  believed  the  Union  was  in  danger, 
and  that  to  preserve  it  the  North  must  suppress  its  anti- 
slavery  spirit.  A  few  days  later  he  spoke  from  the 
balcony  of  the  Revere  House  in  Boston,  and  declared 
he  should  "  take  no  step  backward,"  and  that  the  people 
of  the  North  "  must  learn  to  conquer  their  prejudices." 

Henry  Clay  had  entered  public  life  about  the  same 
time  as  Webster,  and  had  held  the  same  offices.  He 
had  twice  been  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  no 
man  then  living  had  such  a  large  and  devoted  personal 
following.  For  eight  years  he  had  been  out  of  public 
life,  but  when  the  legislature  of  Kentucky  unanimously 
elected  him  to  the  Senate,  he  came  to  Washington  strong 


THE    COMPROMISE    OF    1850.  49 

in  patriotism  and  hope,  and  fertile  in  plans  to  reunite  the 
sections.  He  was  in  his  seventy-third  year,  and  at  times 
required  the  assistance  of  friends  to  ascend  the  steps  of 
the  Capitol.  On  January  29  he  presented  his  plan  in  the 
Senate.  A  great  audience  had  assembled  to  hear  him. 
Richly  dressed  ladies,  visitors  from  Baltimore,  members 
of  Congress,  gathered  to  hear  the  man  they  loved.  He 
spoke  on,  hour  after  hour,  for  the  great  Union.  His 
tall  form,  now  bent  with  years,  his  white  hair,  his  face 
so  expressive  of  every  emotion,  added  pathos  to  his 
eloquent  plea  for  his  country. 

John  C.  Calhoun  began  public  life  about  the  same 
time  as  Webster  and  Clay.  He  had  served  as  repre- 
sentative and  senator  in  Congress,  had  been  Secretary 
of  State,  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  His 
was  the  master  mind  in  the  effort  at  nullification.  He  said 
in  1848,  "  If  you  should  ask  me  the  word  which  I  would 
wish  engraven  on  my  tombstone,  it  is  'nullification.'" 
He  said  slavery  was  "a  good  —  a  positive  good."  His 
mind  had  become  possessed  of  one  idea,  and  that  was  that 
slavery  was  the  necessary  bed-rock  foundation  of  Southern 
prosperity.  On  March  4,  1850,  he  appeared  in  the  Sen- 
ate. Somber,  aged,  haggard,  gloomy,  wrapped  in  his 
cloak  and  too  ill  to  speak,  he  listened  as  a  friend  read 
the  speech  which  he  had  carefully  prepared.  It  declared 
unalterably  for  slavery  and  the  rights  of  the  States. 

The  Compromise  of  1850  embraced  five  distinct  laws 
passed  by  Congress  at  different  times  during  the  year. 
These  laws  were  as  follows: 

1.  California  was  admited  as  a  free  State. 

2.  New  Mexico  and  Utah  were  organized   as  Ter- 
ritories without  mention  of  slavery. 

4 


5O  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

3.  The  western  boundary  of  Texas  was  establishedr 
and  that  State  was  paid  $10,000,000  to  give  up  its  claim 
on  part  of  New  Mexico. 

4.  The  slave  trade,  but  not  slavery,  was  abolished  in 
the  District  of  Columbia. 

5.  A  new  and  more  effective  fugitive  slave  law  was 
passed. 

Except  the  fugitive  slave  law,  the  Compromise  of 
1850  was  fair  to  the  North.  With  that  exception,  the 
Compromise  was  accepted  in  good  faith  by  Whigs  and 
Democrats,  by  North  and  South.  Most  of  the  leaders 
spoke  of  it  as  a  "final"  settlement  of  the  slavery 
question. 

For  a  time  the  South  was  disposed  to  insist  on  slavery 
in  California.  Gold  was  discovered  there  in  1848.  The 
next  year  over  80,000  persons  went  to  the  El  Dorado,  and 
by  November,  1849,  the  population  was  above  100,000. 
Two-thirds  of  these  were  Americans,  and  the  rest  were 
from  Europe,  Mexico  and  South  America.  Government 
was  quickly  organized  and  the  next  year  California 
asked  admission  as  a  free  State.  The  only  two  papers 
there  were  outspoken  against  slavery.  On  September  9, 
1850,  Congress  admitted  California  as  a  free  State. 

Both  slavery  and  the  slave  trade  existed  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  in  1789.  Twelve  years  later  Congress 
enacted  that  the  laws  of  Maryland  relating  to  slavery 
should  be  valid  in  that  part  of  the  District  north  of  the 
Potomac  river.  During  the  next  fifty  years  Washington 
became  a  regular  market  where  slaves  were  bought  and 
sold  in  large  numbers.  Gangs  of  handcuffed  slaves 
were  frequently  seen  on  the  streets.  On  the  payment 
of  $400  to  the  city  government,  regular  traders  were 
licensed  to  buy  and  sell  slaves  in  the  District.  The  law 


COTTON    IS    KING.  51 

of  1850  abolished  this  abominable  traffic,  but  did  not 
forbid  slavery  itself. 

To  the  North,  the  fugitive  slave  law  was,  by  far,  the 
most  offensive  of  the  five  acts  of  the  great  Compromise. 
This  law  empowered  each  of  the  circuit  courts  of  the 
United  States  to  appoint  a  commissioner  for  a  given  dis- 
trict. This  commissioner  was  a  kind  of  judge  to  de- 
termine the  freedom  or  slavery  of  the  fugitive.  No 
jury  was  allowed  the  runaway,  nor  was  he  permitted 
to  testify  for  his  own  liberty.  The  affidavit  of  the  owner, 
or  his  agent,  was  sufficient  to  return  the  prisoner  into 
bondage.  The  law  even  made  the  commissioner's  fee 
higher  for  adjudging  the  fugitive  to  be  a  slave  rather 
than  a  free  man.  If  the  prisoner  escaped,  the  United 
States  marshal  was  liable  to  the  owner  for  the  value  of 
the  slave.  In  case  of  such  a  rescue,  the  bystanders  were, 
by  law,  compelled  to  aid  the  marshal. 

The  effect  of  this  law  was  immediate.  Thousands  of 
negroes  at  the  North  at  once  went  to  Canada.  Nu- 
merous arrests  were  soon  made,  mobs  secured  the 
prisoners,  and  violation  of  the  law  was  openly  advocated. 

XXIII.     COTTON  IS  KING:  1820-1860. 

Several  inventions  in  England  had  very  great  effect 
upon  cotton  culture  in  the  United  States.  In  1769 
Arkwright  made  the  first  spinning  jenny,  and  fourteen 
years  later  Watt  discovered  the  power  of  steam  to  move 
machinery.  In  1785  Cartwright  invented  the  power 
loom,  and  the  same  year  Bell  used  cylinders  for  printing 
calicoes.  During  the  next  fifteen  years  the  cotton  trade 
doubled  in  England,  and  the  factory  system  was  well 
under  way.  By  1850  there  were  2,650  cotton  mills  in  Eng- 


52  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

land,  employing  nearly  half  a  million  persons,  and  steam 
vessels  now  carried  to  these  mills  yearly  over  3,000,000 
bales  of  cotton  from  the  United  States.  This  rising  de- 
mand increased  the  supply  of  cotton.  Money  was  plenty 
in  the  South,  and  every  year  saw  an  increased  cotton  crop. 

The  first  cotton  mill  in  the  United  States  was  at  Bev- 
erly, Massachusetts,  in  1787.  In  1860  there  were  nearly 
a  thousand  mills  in  the  North,  and  a  considerable  part 
'of  the  Southern  crop  found  its  way  to  New  England  by 
sea  or  by  rail.  Thus  the  mills  of  England  and  New 
England  enormously  increased  the  cotton  culture  of  the 
South. 

The  first  cotton  grown  in  the  colonies  was  produced 
at  Jamestown  in  1607;  but  even  at  the  time  of  the 
American  Revolution  the  crop  was  of  no  importance. 
In  1793  it  was  raised  only  along  the  tide-water  region 
from  Virginia  to  Georgia.  In  that  year  Whitney's  in- 
vention of  the  cotton  gin  at  once  raised  the  value  and 
importance  of  the  crop.  This  machine  quickly  and 
cheaply  removed  the  seed  from  the  cotton.  It  was  not 
many  years  before  every  planter  had  his  own  gin  and 
was  able  to  market  a  far  greater  supply.  The  cotton 
belt  spread  rapidly  westward,  but  even  in  1821  the  four 
Atlantic  seaboard  States  produced  two-thirds  of  all  that 
was  grown.  During  the  next  forty  years  the  cotton 
fields  spread  over  the  vast,  and  fertile  lands  of  Alabama, 
Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas  and  Texas. 
Louisiana  and  Mississippi  were  called  "  The  Cotton 
Garden  of  the  World."  Cotton  now  became  the  great 
crop  of  the  South,  and  Ex-Governor  Hammond,  of  South 
Carolina,  said  "  Cotton  is  King." 

The  extension  of  the  cotton  belt  was  accompanied  by 
an  increasing  number  of  waste  cotton  fields.  No  ferti- 


COTTON    IS    KING.  53 

lizers  were  used.  The  field  was  "  cropped  "  year  after 
year,  and  this  "  land  killing "  became  the  rule.  So 
rapidly  had  this  gone  on,  that  in  1850  less  than  one- 
third  of  the  lands  of  the  two  Carolinas  and  Georgia  was 
improved,  while  in  all  New  England,  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  Jersey  over  two-thirds  of  the  land 
was  under  cultivation. 

When  a  planter  needed  a  new  field  for  cotton,  his 
slaves  girdled  the  larger  trees  on  a  piece  of  woodland, 
cut  down  the  smaller  ones,  cleared  away  the  land,  and 
loosely  cultivated  the  soil.  Corn  was  then  raised  one  or, 
two  years.  After  this  the  soil  was  more  thoroughly 
cultivated  and  thrown  into  ridges  about  four  feet  apart. 
Thfese  ridges  were  then  split  open  and  about  two 
bushels  of  seed  to  the  acre  were  planted  in  them.  The 
planting  took  place  from  February  to  May  and  was  gen- 
erally done  by  women  and  children.  When  the  plant 
was  several  inches  high,  the  rows  were  thinned  out  so 
as  to  form  hills  about  twelve  inches  apart.  The  field 
was  then  carefully  hoed  every  twenty  days,  and  then 
worked  over  from  three  to  five  times  before  the  picking 
began.  The  first  blooms  appeared  in  May  and  June,  but 
the  picking  season  lasted  from  August  to  December.  All 
the  slaves  —  men,  women  and  children  —  picked  the 
cotton,  and  the  amount  gathered  by  each  slave  varied 
from  fifty  to  five  hundred  pounds  per  day.  The  tools 
used  on  a  cotton  plantation  were  of  the  rudest  kind.  On 
a  South  Carolina  plantation  of  2,700  acres,  and  employ- 
ing 254  slaves,  only  $1,262  was  invested  in  tools  and 
wagons.  The  rule  was  to  "  wear  out "  the  tools.  The 
crop  was  taken  to  market  in  rude  wagons  or  carts  or 
by  flatboats  on  the  river.  The  profits  of  cotton-raising 
were  often  thirty-five  per  cent.  : 


54  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

XXIV.     PLANTATION  LIFE:  1820-1860. 

The  stately  home  of  the  master  and  mistress  was  the 
center  of  interest  of  the  whole  plantation.  Placed  on  a 
hill  in  a  woodland  of  noble  oaks  and  hickories,  it  com- 
manded a  view  of  stream  and  valley  and  fields  of  corn 
and  cotton.  At  a  distance,  its  white  columns  and  Greek 
portico  seemed  embosomed  in  a  mass  of  green.  Over  all 
the  landscape  was  thrown  the  exquisite  charm  of  the 
long  summer  of  the  South.  The  house  was  usually  a 
story  and  a  half  in  height,  with  fine  columns  and  portico 
in  front,  a  wide  hallway  and  large  rooms.  Names  such 
as  Mount  Vernon,  Monticello,  Arlington,  Ashland,  were 
given  to  these  hospitable  homes. 

The  master  was  a  fine  type  of  manhood.  His  char- 
acter appeared  in  two  distinct  ways,,  and  in  both  he 
commands  respect.  First  of  all  he  was  the  owner  of 
hundreds  and  often  thousands  of  acres  of  land,  and  had 
the  pride  of  ownership.  He  was  the  master  of  numer- 
ous slaves  and  daily  accustomed  to  implicit  obedience. 
He  acquired  a  fixed  habit  of  command.  He  was  gen- 
erally a  public  man  and  held  a  local,  State  or  national 
position  of  trust.  His  integrity  was  unquestioned,  his 
courage  undoubted.  But  in  contrast  with  these  stronger 
traits  of  his  character  was  his  courteous  and  refined 
bearing  to  his  family  and  friends.  He  was  by  instinct 
and  training  a  gentleman.  His,  chivalry  to  women,  his 
respect  to  men,  his  kindness  in  his  home,  his  unfailing 
and  warm  hospitality  to  his  friends,  his  ability  in  con- 
versation, his  dignified  yet  easy  bearing,  gave  refine- 
ment and  courtesy  to  Southern  life  and  manners. 

The  mistress  ruled  supreme  in  the  home.  Loved  by 
her  husband,  adored  by  her  children,  and  worshiped 


PLANTATION    LIFE.  55 

by  the  servants,  her  life  was  one  of  goodness  and  devo- 
tion. Often,  at  night,  among  the  servants,  she  was  car- 
ing for  the  sick,  giving  sympathy  and  advice,  and  pro- 
viding comforts  and  necessities.  She  took  pride  in  the 
flower  garden  and  made  it  the  especial  object  of  her 
<:are  and  taste.  In  the  social  circle  she  was  the  center 
of  attention  and  courtesy. 

The  "  servants  "  performed  the  various  kinds  of  labor 
around  the  house.  They  were  generally  better  sheltered, 
clothed  and  fed  than  the  "  field  hands."  Seeing  much 
of  a  refined  home,  they  caught  something  of  its  courtesy 
and  manner.  One  was  a  coachman,  another  a  gar- 
dener, a  carpenter,  a  cook,  or  a  waiter;  but  among  all 
these,  the  old  "  Mammy  "  held  the  place  of  honor  and 
affection.  She  was  a  kind  of  mother,  nurse  and  attend- 
ant to  the  master's  children.  She  had  considerable 
authority  and  might  punish,  but  she  usually  ruled  her 
"  chillun  "  by  affectionate  tenderness  and  care. 

The  "  field  hands  "  performed  the  harder  labor  of  the 
plantation.  They  often  worked  sixteen  or  eighteen 
hours  a  day  and  took  a  noon  rest  of  an  hour.  Their 
work  was  hard  and  hopeless  in  the  rice,  sugar  and  cotton 
fields.  A  slave  able  to  pick  four  or  five  hundred  pounds 
of  cotton  a  day  was  called  a  "  cotton  nigger."  Each 
slave  in  the  field  was  rated  as  a  "  full  hand,"  "  half  hand*" 
or  "quarter  hand,"  and  was  expected  to  perform  only 
such  given  amount  of  work. 

When  the  day's  labor  was  ended,  the  slaves  returned 
to  the  "negro  quarters."  These  were  their  cabins  in. a 
motley  cluster  at  some  distance  from  the  planter's  home. 
These  cabins  were  generally  dirty  and  wretched.  In 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana  each  one  consisted  of  a  single 
room  about  twenty  feet  square.  The  furniture  was  of 


$  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

the  rudest  and  poorest  kind.  Each  family  was  allowed 
a  "  truck  patch  "'to  raise  vegetables  and  poultry,  and 
with  these  the  slave  bought  whiskey,  tobacco  and  Sun- 
day finery. 

The  food  and  clothing  of  the  slaves  consisted  of  the 
barest  necessities.  Forty-six  slave-holders  on  sugar 
plantations  in  Louisiana  reported  that  the  total  cost  of, 
food  and  clothing  for  an  able-bodied  slave  was  only  $30 
per  year.  One  Louisiana  planter  paid,  in  one  year, 
$750  for  food  and  hospital  service  for  one  hundred 
negroes,  or  two  and  one-half  cents  a  day  for  each  slave. 
The  regular  food  allowed  was  four  quarts  of  cornmeal 
and  one  quart  of  molasses  each  week.  Besides  thisr 
vegetables  were  often  given  by  the  master  or  raised 
by  the  slave ;  but  meat  was  not  used.  Poor  as  the  food 
was,  it  was  enough  in  quantity;  but  the  convicts  of  the 
North  had  greater  variety.  If  the  food  was  bad,  the 
slave's  clothes  were  worse.  He  was  often  without  hat 
or  shoes,  and  was  covered  with  rags  and  dirt.  He  was 
in  a  double  sense  the  "  mud-sill "  of  Southern  society. 

In  ten  States  in  1850  the  average  size  of  the  plantation- 
was  401  acres,  and  on  nearly  all  the  large  estates  an 
overseer  was  hired  to  direct  the  labor  of  the  "  field 
hands."  He  was  paid  from  $200  to  $600  a  year,  and 
often  received  much  more.  He  was  valued  in  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  of  work  which  he  could  get  from  the 
negroes.  He  was  given  despotic  power  over  the  life 
and  labor  of  the  slave.  He  was  generally  ignorant,  often 
drunken,  and  by  nature  brutal.  Though  white  and 
free,  he  was  held  in  scorn  by  the  planter  and  his  family. 
He  appointed  a  negro  driver,  who  was  held  responsible 
for  the  labor  of  a  small  gang  of  slaves.  This  driver  was 
usually  a  large,  powerful  negro  and  carried  a  heavy  whip. 


THE    SLAVE    TRADE.  57 

Flogging  was  common,  but  was  not  inflicted  in  wan- 
ton cruelty.  The  overseer  or  driver  often  said,  "  If  you 
don't  work  better  I  will  flog  you;  "  but  as  a  rule,  blows 
were  not  given  except  for  idleness  or  petty  offenses. 
.Yet  if  an  overseer  killed  a  slave  nothing  was  done,  for 
the  negro  was  only  property  and  not  a  person  in  the 
sight  of  the  law. 

Slaves  were  sold  like  cattle,  but  care  was  often  taken 
that  families  should  not  be  separated.  "  Cash  for 
Negroes,"  "  Negroes  for  Sale,"  "  Negroes  Wanted," 
were  common  advertisements  in  the  papers.  Mules  and 
negroes  were  frequently  advertised  together.  By  actual 
count,  sixty-four  newspapers  in  two  weeks,  in  1852,  of- 
fered for  sale  4,100  slaves.  One  man  in  Richmond 
advertised  his  farm  and  forty  slaves  that  he  might  raise 
money  to  become  a  missionary.  In  the  larger  towns 
were  slave  prisons,  where  the  negroes  were  locked 
until  sold.  When  brought  into  the  room  where  the  buy- 
ers were,  they  were  placed  upon  a  low  platform,  and 
their  teeth,  hair,  eyes,  limbs,  weight  and  health  were 
carefully  examined.  Before  the  war  General  Sherman 
saw  in  New  Orleans  young  girls  thus  treated  on  the 
auction  block,  and  he  never  forgot  the  impression  then 
made.  Lincoln  came  out  of  such  a  room  with  an  oath 
like  a  prayer  to  strike  a  great  blow  at  slavery  some 
day.  But  in  general  the  slaves  were  indifferent  at  the 
auction  block.  They  even  took  pride  in  their  price, 
which  rose  from  $325  in  1840  to  $500  in  1860. 

XXV.    THE  SLAVE  TRADE:  1808-1860. 
A  regular  and  important  trade  was  carried  on  between 
the  border  States  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky  and 
Missouri   and   the  Gulf  States.     In  one  year   alone  — 


58  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

1836  —  Virginia  sold  to  the  South  and  West  40,000 
slaves,  valued  at  $24,000,000.  In  the  same  year  Missis- 
sippi bought  250,000  negroes.  The  slave  had  a  horror  of 
being  "  sold  South,"  and  to  prevent  escapes,  strong  depots 
were  built  with  locks  and  bars,  and  provided  with 
thumbscrews  for  punishment.  Gangs  of  handcuffed 
negroes  were  often  seen  on  the  roads  leading  South. 

The  law  of  1808  forbade  the  importation  of  slaves 
from  any  foreign  country  to  the  United  States  under  a 
penalty  of  $20,000  and  confiscation  of  the  vessel  caught 
in  the  trade;  but  the  law  was  notoriously  violated.  In 
1820  Southern  men  estimated  the  number  smuggled  in 
at  from  thirteen  to  fifteen  thousand  a  3rear.  In  1859 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  said  he  had  no  doubt  that  15,000 
had  that  year  been  brought  into  the  United  States. 

XXVI.     EFFECT  OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE 
LAW-  1850-1860. 

Within  eight  days  after  its  passage  the  fugitive  slave 
law  of  1850  was  set  in  operation.  While  at  work  in 
New  York,  James  Hamlet,  a  negro  slave  from  Mary- 
land, was  seized,  given  a  hearing  before  the  commis- 
sioner, adjudged  to  be  a  slave,  handcuffed,  forced  into  a 
carriage  and  taken  to  Baltimore,  where  he  was  placed 
into  a  slave  pen  kept  by  the  notorious  Hope  Slatter. 

Another  case  in  the  same  State  aroused  deep  indigna- 
tion. For  several  years  a  negro,  Jerry  McHenry,  had 
lived  at  Syracuse,  New  York.  On  October  i,  1851,  he 
was  seized,  placed  and  held  in  a  wagon  by  force  and 
taken  to  the  jail.  That  evening  a  score  of  the  best  citi- 
zens broke  open  the  door  of  the  jail  and  rescued  the 
slave.  For  several  days  McHenry  was  concealed  and 


THE    FUGITIVE    SLAVE    LAW.  59 

finally  taken  to  Canada.  For  this  offense  eighteen  of  the 
leading  men  of  Syracuse  were  arrested  and  taken  before 
the  United  States  court  at  Albany.  On  their  day  of 
hearing  one  hundred  prominent  citizens  went  with  them 
to  Albany  and  William  H.  Seward  gave  bail  for  them. 
Nothing  further  came  of  the  case. 

Six  months  before  the  "Jerry  rescue"  Thomas  M. 
Simms  was  seized  under  the  law  and  lodged  in  the  jail 
of  the  court-house  in  Boston.  To  prevent  a  rescue 
heavy  chains  were  fastened  around  the  jail.  The  next 
morning  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts had  to  stoop  as  they  passed  under  these  chains  of 
slavery.  At  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  slave  was 
placed  in  a  hollow  square  formed  by  three  hundred 
policemen,  marched  to  the  wharf  and  sent  to  Georgia. 
While  Simms  was  in  jail  Wendell  Phillips  spoke  on  Bos- 
ton Common  against  the  outrage,  and  a  few  days  later 
an  indignation  meeting  was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

A  deputy  marshal  and  three  Virginians  came  to 
Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  and  found  a  mulatto  em- 
ployed at  a  hotel.  They  struck  him  on  the  back  of  the 
head  with  a  club,  but  he  fought  them  off  with  terrible 
energy  with  a  handcuff  which  they  had  quickly  put  on 
his  right  wrist.  With  his  hand  covered  with  blood  he 
rushed  into  the  Susquehanna  river,  saying,  "I  will  be 
drowned  rather  than  taken  alive."  While  in  the  water 
up  to  his  neck  they  repeatedly  shot  at  him  and  finally 
struck  his  head,  and  the  blood  ran  over  his  face.  A 
crowd  by  this  time  gathered,  the  wounded  man  came 
out  of  the  water,  and  as  he  lay  dying  on  the  shore  one 
of  his  pursuers  remarked,  "  Dead  niggers  were  not  worth 
taking  South."  Even  after  this,  as  he  revived,  he  was 
driven  a  second  time  into  the  river,  but  the  crowd  inter- 


60  FREEDOM  AND   SLAVERY. 

fered  and  the  pursuers  fled.  Later  they  were  arrested 
for  this  crime,  but  Judge  Grier  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  discharged  the  Virginians  and  said  no 
blame  attached  to  them. 

In  1854  a  fugitive  slave  named  Glover  was  arrested  at 
Racine,  Wisconsin.  He  was  knocked  down,  put  in  a 
wagon,  driven  quickly  to  Milwaukee  and  lodged  in  jail. 
A  mass  meeting  at  Racine  resolved  that  Glover  should 
have  a  fair  trial,  and  one  hundred  citizens  went  to  Mil- 
waukee, where  they  learned  that  a  meeting  of  five  thou- 
sand people  had  appointed  a  vigilance  committee  to  see 
that  Glover  was  given  a  fair  trial.  But  a  mob  soon  broke 
open  the  jail  and  sent  the  slave  to  Canada.  The  rescuers 
were  not  arrested,  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
decided  that  the  fugitive  slave  law  was  unconstitutional. 

The  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  produced  a 
long  succession  of  tragedies ;  but  for  every  fugitive  re- 
turned to  the  South,  hundreds  of  men  at  the  North 
joined  the  anti-slavery  party.  The  law  was  openly  defied, 
and  such  men  as  Emerson  said  it  would  and  should  be 
violated.  Ten  northern  States  soon  passed  "  Personal 
Liberty  Laws,"  which  insured  a  fair  trial  and  prohibited 
the  use  of  the  State  jails  to  the  fugitives.  Only  two 
States,  California  and  New  Jersey,  provided  by  law  for 
the  capture  and  return  of  slaves,  and  even  there  public 
opinion  often  broke  State  and  National  laws  and  set  the 
captive  free. 

XXVII.    THE   UNDERGROUND   RAILROAD: 

1840-1860. 

The  "  Underground  Railroad  "  was  the  name  given  to 
the  ways  and  means  by  which  thousands  of  slaves  es- 
caped to  the  North.  There  were  three  main  systems  to 


THE    UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD.  6l 

this  "  Railroad."  The  first  set  of  lines  enabled  slaves  from 
Missouri  to  escape  northeast  across  Illinois.  The  second 
system  led  north  across  Ohio  and  western  Pennsylvania. 
The  third  system  went  north  across  eastern  Pennsylva- 
nia. Ohio  had  the  greatest  number  of  these  lines  and 
Oberlin  was  the  most  noted  station.  Twenty  lines  cross- 
ing that  State  enabled  more  negroes  to  escape  than  by 
either  of  the  other  systems.  Many  lines  converged  to 
Philadelphia  and  thence  diverged  to  the  north.  One 
line  went  from  Washington  to  Albany  and  another  from 
Gettysburg  to  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  and  then  by 
way  of  Elmira  and  Niagara  Falls  to  Canada. 

The  slaves  thus  escaping  north  came  mainly  from 
Missouri,  Kentucky,  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Delaware. 
They  ran  from  the  field,  kitchen  and  shop  to  some  for- 
est or  swamp.  They  traveled  by  night,  guided  by  the 
north  star.  Often  followed  by  bloodhounds,  always  in 
danger,  trudging  on  in  the  darkness,  concealed  by  day 
in  boxes  .or  barns  or  brush,  footsore,  weary,  penniless, 
hungry,  stealing  food  rather  than  trust  other  slaves,  they 
reached,  at  last,  some  station  on  the  underground  rail- 
road. Such  a  station  was  some  farmer's  house  where 
the  fugitive  received  food,  clothing  and  concealment,  and 
was  then  taken  in  some  box  or  load  of  hay  or  by  night 
to  the  next  station.  Canada  offered  the  only  place  of 
true  safety,  but  thousands  of  negroes  settled  in  the  north- 
ern States  and  were  protected  by  public  opinion. 

There  is  on  record  a  list  of  three  thousand  and  eleven 
persons  who  actively  aided  the  negroes  to  escape  along 
the  various  lines  of  the  underground  railroad.  Among 
the  most  eminent  were:  Salmon  P.  Chase,  who  was 
called  the  "  attorney-general  for  fugitives,"  and  who  was 
afterwards  in  Lincoln's  cabinet;  Rutherford  B.  Hayes, 


62  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

later  President  of  the  United  States;  Joshua  Giddings, 
for  long  years  in  Congress  as  the  enemy  of  slavery; 
Theodore  Parker,  the  great  minister  of  Boston;  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  of  Pennsylva- 
nia; Frederick  Douglass,  the  well-known  orator.  Gerrit 
Smith,  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  aided  two  thousand 
seven  hundred  slaves  to  escape  and  paid  eight  thousand 
dollars  in  fines  for  violation  of  the  law.  Levi  Coffin  of 
Ohio  aided  nearly  three  thousand  to  escape.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  helped  many  on  their  way  to  freedom. 

XXVIII.    UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN. 

In  1852  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  published  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin."  Within  six  months  more  than  seventy- 
five  thousand  copies  were  sold  in  the  United  States  and 
twice  that  number  in  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies.  It 
was  dramatized  the  same  year,  and  later  was  translated 
into  twenty-three  languages.  Extreme  abolitionists  at 
once  proclaimed  the  work  as  a  true  picture  of  slavery, 
and  the  slave-holders  of  the  South  ridiculed  the  book  as 
the  work  of  a  fanatic  and  a  despised  abolitionist.  The 
book  well  and  truthfully  represented  the  dark  and  brutal 
side  of  slavery,  but  it  only  half  portrayed  the  daily  life 
of  most  slaves,  and  it  utterly  failed  to  reflect  the  courtesy 
and  charm  of  Southern  society.  The  work  had  a  wide 
and  increasing  influence  in  the  North  and  rapidly  filled 
the  ranks  of  a  new  and  powerful  anti-slavery  party. 

XXIX.    THE  CAMPAIGN  AND  ELECTION 

OF  1852. 

The  campaign  and  election  of  1852  showed  little  of 
the  great  change  that  was  silently  but  surely  going  on 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA   LAW.  63 

at  the  North.  The  army  of  politicians,  intent  on  getting 
office,  was  not  responsive  to  the  new  movement  for  jus- 
tice and  freedom.  These  men  controlled  both  the  na- 
tional conventions,  which  met  in  June  at  Baltimore.  In 
their  platforms  both  Whigs  and  Democrats  declared  for 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  including  the  fugitive  slave 
law.  The  Democrats  declared  against  all  forms  of  slav- 
ery agitation.  The  leaders  of  both  parties  showed  a 
plain  and  even  anxious  intention  to  stop  all  talk  of  the 
slavery  question.  But  this  was  precisely  the  question 
that  was  uppermost  in  men's  minds,  and  when  a  clear 
statement  concerning  it  was  made  it  received  a  wide 
audience."  Such  a  statement  was  put  forth  in  the  plat- 
form of  the  Free  Soil  convention  which  met  at  Pittsburg 
on  August  ii.  This  party  declared :  "  Slavery  is  a  sin 
against  God,  and  a  crime  against  man ;"  "  The  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  of  1850  is  repugnant  to  the  Constitution;" 
"Slavery  is  sectional  and  freedom  national;"  "No  more 
slave  States,  no  more  slave  Territories,  no  nationalized 
slavery,  and  no  national  legislation  for  the  extradition  of 
slaves."  In  the  election  that  followed,  the  Democrats 
carried  every  State  except  four;  but  beneath  this  success 
forces  were  then  operating  to  form  a  new  and  powerful 
political  party  of  freedom,  and  to  place  the  North  and 
South  in  hostile  array. 

XXX.    THE  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  LAW:  1854. 

Within  two  years  after  election  the  politicians  resolved 
on  a  bold  move  in  favor  of  slavery.  On  January  23, 
1854,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  introduced  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  a  bill  to  organize  the  Ter- 
ritories of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  and  to  repeal  that  part 


64  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

of  the  Missouri  Compromise  which  prohibited  slavery 
in  the  two  Territories.  It  was  further  provided  that  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  should  extend  to  both  Territories, 
and  it  was  the  clear  intention  to  make  Kansas  a  slave 
State. 

Far  more  than  any  other  man,  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
was  responsible  for  this  bill.  Two  years  before  he  was 
a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  the  Democratic  na- 
tional convention,  and  the  glittering  prize  yet  called  forth 
all  his  energy  and  ambition.  He  saw  that  the  way  to 
the  White  House  was  to  please  the  slave  power.  He 
knew  that  the  South  had  neither  asked  nor  hoped  for 
slave  territory  north  of  Missouri,  and  that  the  North 
would  offer  a  strong  opposition  to  his  plan.  A  few 
weeks  before  he  took  this  great  step,  he  was  riding  with 
Senator  Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  and  after  a  long  conversa- 
tion about  the  question,  Douglas  said,  "  I  will  do  it." 
On  March  3,  1854,  he  faced  an  able  and  determined  op- 
position in  the  Senate.  He  spoke  till  daybreak  and 
showed  great  power  in  the  running  debate.  He  was 
below  the  medium  height,  with  a  heavy  frame  and  mas- 
sive head.  His  physical  endurance  and  force,  his  clear- 
ness of  statement  and  bold  reply  won  admiration  from 
all  sides.  Seward  said,  "  I  have  never  had  so  much  re- 
spect for  the  Senator  as  I  have  to-night." 

The  bill  was  before  Congress  four  months  and  at- 
tracted wide  attention.  It  came  as  a  shock  to  the 
North.  The  papers  then  said  "  Slavery  takes  the  field." 
Public  meetings  were  held  in  New  York,  Boston  and 
Chicago  to  protest  against  the  bill.  The  legislatures  of 
five  States  declared  against  it.  Three  thousand  clergy- 
men of  the  various  denominations  in  New  England  laid 
before  the  Senate  a  protest  in  which  they  said  the  repeal 


BORDER    WARFARE    IN    KANSAS.  65 

of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  a  "  great  moral  wrong 
and  a  breach  of  the  faith."  The  debate  in  Congress 
was  earnest  and  often  bitter.  Mr.  Badger,  of  North 
Carolina,  said  in  the  Senate,  "  Is  it  not  hard,  if  I  should 
choose  to  emigrate  to  Kansas,  that  I  should  be  forbidden 
to  take  my  old  mammy  along  with  me?"  Ben.  Wade, 
of  Ohio,  replied,  "  We  have  not  the  least  objection  to  the 
Senator's  migration  to  Kansas  and  taking  his  old 
mammy  along  with  him.  We  only  insist  that  he  shall 
not  be  empowered  to  sell  her  after  taking  her  there." 

To  give  a  reason  for  the  bill,  Douglas  invented  one 
called  the  doctrine  of  "  non-intervention  "  or  "  squatter 
sovereignty."  He  wrote  in  the  law  this  doctrine:  "It 
being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  leg- 
islate slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude 
it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly 
free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in 
their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution."  The 
bill  become  a  law  on  May  30,  1854,  an(^  transferred  the 
whole  struggle  from  Congress  to  Kansas. 

XXXI.    BORDER  WARFARE  IN  KANSAS. 

In  1854  six  northern  border  counties  of  Missouri  had 
a  population  of  60,000  white  persons  and  18,000  slaves. 
The  central  and  eastern  part  of  the  State  was  held  by 
slave-holders  and  a  determined  effort  was  now  put  forth 
to  capture  Kansas  for  slavery.  In  the  month  following 
the  passage  of  the  act  hundreds  of  Missouri  farmers 
with  their  slaves  crossed  the  western  boundary  of  the 
State  into  Kansas.  Lawless  and  desperate  men  from 
other  southern  States  also  came  to  the  new  Territory. 
But  thousands  at  the  North  determined  to  make  Kansas 


66  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

a  free  State.  Though  Massachusetts  was  2,000  miles 
away,  yet  "  Emigrant  Aid  Societies  "  were  formed  and 
many  from  New  England  took  the  long  journey  to  the 
West.  John  Brown  with  his  four  sons  went  out  from 
Ohio  with  a  burning  hatred  for  slavery.  In  a  few 
months  an  election  was  held  to  organize  a  government 
for  Kansas  and  the  slave-holders  triumphed.  But  the 
election  was  carried  by  fraud.  Out  of  the  six  thousand 
votes  cast  only  about  eight  hundred  were  by  legal  set- 
tlers. Bands  of  men  came  across  from  Missouri,  and 
after  voting  returned  to  that  State.  The  free  settlers 
ignored  the  government  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been 
set  up  by  fraud,  but  it  was  supported  by  the  federal  offi- 
cers at  Washington. 

In  September,  1857,  the  slave-holders  held  a  constitu- 
tional convention  at  Lecompton,  and  after  drawing  up  a 
constitution  for  Kansas,  submitted  it  to  the  people  in  two 
ways:  "For  the  constitution  with  slavery,"  "  For  the 
constitution  without  slavery."  This  gave  the  people  no 
chance  to  vote  against  the  constitution  itself.  In  the  elec- 
tion which  followed,  6,266  votes  were  given  for  the  con- 
stitution with  slavery  and  only  567  for  it  without  slavery. 
The  free  settlers  refused  to  vote  at  all.  The  next  month 
the  free  settlers  elected  a  delegate  to  Congress  and  a 
legislature  for  Kansas.  This  legislature  again  submit- 
ted the  Lecompton  constitution  to  the  people  in  two 
ways:  "For  the  constitution,"  " Against  the  constitu- 
tion." Ten  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  votes 
were  given  against  the  constitution  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty-two  for  it.  The  slave-holders  had,  in  turn,  refused 
to  vote. 

This  double  government  went  on  for  years  and  caused 
crime  and  disorder.  Douglas'  clear,  legal  doctrine  of 


THE    OSTEND   MANIFESTO.  67 

non-intervention  had  arrayed  neighbor  against  neighbor, 
town  against  town,  and  had  caused  innumerable  mid- 
night raids  for  plunder  and  murder.  Squatter  sover- 
eignty had  produced  anarchy. 

XXXII.    THE  OSTEND  MANIFESTO:  1854. 

In  1854  the  South  made  another  effort  to  get  more 
slave  territory.  Six  years  before,  the  government  of  the 
United  States  had  offered  Spain  $100,000,000  for  Cuba, 
but  Spain  treated  the  proposal  as  an  insult.  The  Ameri- 
can government  then  instructed  its  ministers  to  Spain, 
France  and  England  to  meet  and  consider  a  plan  by 
which  the  United  States  might  acquire  Cuba.  The  three 
ministers,  Soule>  Mason  and  Buchanan,  met  at  Ostend, 
Belgium,  in  October,  1854.  They  issued  a  manifesto  de- 
claring for  the  purchase  of  Cuba  for  $120,000,000;  "but 
if  Spain,  dead  to  the  voice  of  her  own  interest,  and  actu- 
ated by  stubborn  pride  and  a  false  sense  of  honor,  should 
refuse  to  sell  Cuba  to  the  United  States,"  then  "  we  shall 
be  justified  in  wresting  it  from  Spain  if  we  possess  the 
power."  This  manifesto  attracted  wide  attention  in  Eu- 
rope. The  London  Times  stated:  "In  this  Ostend  mani- 
festo a  policy  is  avowed  which,  if  declared  by  one  ot  the 
great  European  powers,  would  set  the  whole  continent  in 
a  blaze."  War  was  expected  at  Madrid.  Soule,  the  min- 
ister of  the  young  nation  that  was  rising  with  so  much 
power  beyond  the  ocean,  was  received  at  the  Spanish 
court  with  marked  attention.  Besides  representing  a 
nation  that  seemed  to  adopt  the  language  and  attitude  of 
a  highwayman,  he  was  well  qualified  to  attract  notice 
anywhere.  He  appeared  before  the  king  and  queen  of 
Spain  in  a  costume  like  that  worn  by  Benjamin  Franklin 


68  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

at  the  court  of  France.  His  black  velvet  suit  richly 
embroidered,  his  black  silk  stockings,  his  dress  sword, 
his  pale  complexion  set  off  by  black  eyes  and  hair,  made 
him  a  marked  figure.  Part  of  the  President's  cabinet 
desired  war  with  Spain.  A  reckless  plan  to  invade  Cuba 
was  well  known  at  the  South.  Senator  Slidell  of  Lou- 
isiana started  a  movement  in  the  Senate  to  suspend  the 
neutrality  laws  to  aid  such  a  hostile  expedition  to  Cuba. 
The  Ostend  manifesto  was  thus  the  declaration  and  part 
of  a  general  plan  to  extend  the  area  of  slavery.  The 
South  hoped  that  Cuba  as  well  as  Kansas  might  be 
made  a  slave  State. 

XXXIII.    THE  RISE  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN 
PARTY:  1854-1856. 

The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  act  of  1854  was  a  blow 
strong  enough  to  weld  the  various  anti-slavery  elements 
into  one  compact  political  party.  For  four  years  the 
operation  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  had  multiplied  the 
enemies  of  slavery.  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  had  been 
read  with  emotion  in  tens  of  thousands  of  homes.  The 
breaking  up  of  the  Whig  party  paved  the  way  for  a 
new  party.  The  solid  front  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
defense  of  slavery  demanded  the  formation  of  a  party  for 
freedom. 

The  earliest  move  for  a  new  party  was  at  Ripon,  Wis- 
consin. In  February,  1854,  A.  E.  Bovay  called  a  meet- 
ing at  the  Congregational  church  to  protest  against  the 
passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  'This  village 
political  meeting  was  largely  attended  by  men  and 
women  and  they  passed  resolutions  to  form  a  new  party 
if  Congress  should  pass  the  bill  opening  Kansas  to  slav- 


THE    RISE    OF   THE   REPUBLICAN    PARTY.  69 

ery.  Mr.  Bovay  then  said  that  the  new  party  would 
probably  be  called  Republican,  but  he  advised  delay  as 
to  the  name.  On  February  26,  1854,  ^e  wr°te  Horace 
Greeley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune:  "  Now  is  the 
time  to  organize  a  great  party  to  oppose  slavery.  .  .  . 
Your  paper  is  now  a  power  in  the  land.  .  .  Urge 
all  parties  to  band  together  under  one  name,  I  mean  the 
name  Republican."  On  June  24  the  Tribune  stated  that 
the  name  Republican  had  been  suggested  and  each  week 
this  paper  then  went  out  to  150,000  persons. 

The  Tribune  was  a  kind  of  political  Bible  in  the  North. 
Greeley  now  wrote  Jacob  M.  Howard  of  Michigan  that 
Wisconsin  would  adopt  the  name  Republican  on  July  13, 
and  he  urged  all  the  anti-slavery  men  of  Michigan  to 
choose  the  same  name  at  their  State  convention  on 
July  6.  This  convention  met  at  Jackson,  "  under  the 
oaks."  Zachariah  Chandler  and  a  fugitive  slave  were 
the  principal  speakers.  The  assembly  "  Resolved,  That 
the  institution  of  slavery,  except  in  punishment  of  crimes, 
is  a  great  moral,  social  and  political  evil."  The  first 
Republican  ticket  was  put  forth  and  the  name  formally 
adopted. 

Just  a  week  later  Wisconsin  and  Vermont  adopted 
the  name.  On  the  same  day  10,000  people  assembled 
at  Indianapolis  and  passed  resolutions  against  the  Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Law,  but  the  name  Republican  was  not 
chosen.  On  July  20,  1854,  2,500  people  met  at  Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts,  and  declared  against  slavery  and 
in  favor  of  the  name  Republican.  These  various  State 
conventions  resolved  against  one  or  more  of  the  follow- 
ing: The  Kansas-Nebraska  Law,  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  the 
fall  election  the  new  party  carried  nine  States. 


7O  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

The  Republican  party  got  its  members  from  three 
other  parties.  The  Free  Soilers  eagerly  joined  a  party 
so  like  their  own.  Thousands  of  Northern  Democrats 
came  out  for  freedom.  But  the  main  strength  came 
from  the  Whigs.  The  members  of  this  party  were  now 
in  political  confusion.  For  long  years  they  had  relied 
on  the  rare  leadership  of  Clay,  and  the  still  rarer  ability 
of  Webster,  and  now  both  were  gone.  The  party  was 
hopelessly  divided  on  the  slavery  question.  Most  of  the 
Northern  Whigs  believed  slavery  was  wrong,  and  be- 
sides it  was  easier  to  join  a  new  party  than  to  vote  with 
old  enemies.  These  three  sources  furnished  to  the  Re- 
publican party  in  1854  *ts  sudden  and  rapid  growth. 

But  at  this  time  the  new  party  lacked  leadership. 
Horace  Greeley  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  unite 
the  North  against  the  slave  power.  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
of  Ohio,  was  an  able  and  aggressive  advocate  of  free- 
dom. Seward  was  the  man  best  qualified  to  lead  the 
whole  party;  but  he  did  not  join  the  new  movement 
until  the  next  year.  In  the  autumn  of  1855  he  spoke  out 
at  Albany,  and  his  speech  was  read  by  half  a  million 
men.  He  then  said:  "We  want  a  bold,  out-spoken, 
free-spoken  organization.  .  .  .  Shall  we  report  our- 
selves to  the  Whig  party?  Where  is  it?  .  .  .  The 
Republican  organization  has  laid  a  new,  sound  and 
liberal  platform,  broad  enough "  for  Whigs  and  Demo- 
crats to  stand  upon.  Seward's  influence  was  powerful 
in  strengthening  the  new  party. 

XXXIV.    THE  CAMPAIGN   AND   ELECTION 

OF  1856. 

In  January,  1856,  the  chairman  of  the  Republican 
State  Central  Committees  of  Massachusetts,  Vermont, 


CAMPAIGN    AND    ELECTION    OF    1856.  71 

Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Wisconsin  invited  the  Repub- 
licans of  the  North  to  meet  at  Pittsburg  on  February  22 
to  form  a  national  party.  On  the  day  appointed,  dele- 
gates from  twenty-three  States  listened  to  speeches  by 
Greeley,  Chandler,  Wilmot,  Lovejoy  and  Giddings.  This 
assembly  issued  an  address  to  the  people  and  appointed  a 
time  and  place  for  a  national  convention. 

This  convention  met  at  Philadelphia  in  June.  Two 
thousand  men  represented  twenty-two  States  and  Ter- 
ritories. The  platform  declared,  "  it  is  both  the  right 
and  imperative  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  in  the  Ter- 
ritories those  twin  relics  of  barbarism  —  polygamy  and 
slavery."  When  John  C.  Fremont  was  nominated  for 
President,  the  delegates  threw  hats  and  handkerchiefs 
into  the  air,  and  a  large  silk  flag  bearing  his  name  was 
drawn  across  the  stage. 

The  Democratic  national  convention  met  at  Cincinnati 
in  June  and  nominated  James  Buchanan  for  President. 
The  Richmond  Enquirer  truly  stated  of  Buchanan: 
"He  never  gave  a  vote  against  the  interests  of  slavery, 
and  never  uttered  a  word  which  could  pain  the  most 
sensitive  Southern  heart."  The  platform  declared  for  the 
Compromise  of  1850  and  for  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Law. 

In  the  folio  wing  election  the  Republicans  carried  every 
northern  State  but  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana 
and  Illinois;  and  even  in  these  four  States  they  showed 
great  strength.  The  Democrats  carried  these  States  and 
also  the  solid  South,  except  Maryland,  which  gave  its 
votes  to  a  third  party.  Fremont  got  1,341,264  and 
Buchanan  1,838,169  votes.  The  Republicans,  in  the  brief 
space  of  two  years,  had  made  sweeping  advances,  and 
they  justly  regarded  the  election  of  1856  as  a  moral 
triumph. 


72  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

XXXV.     THE  ATTACK  ON  SUMNER:  1856. 

A  month  before  Fremont  was  nominated  at  Phila- 
delphia, Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  delivered 
in  the  Senate  a  speech  entitled  "The  Crime  against 
Kansas,"  in  which  he  made  a  bitter  attack  on  Senator 
Butler,  of  South  Carolina.  Two'  days  later  Preston 
Brooks,  a  representative  from  South  Carolina,  and  a 
nephew  of  Butler,  came  into  the  Senate  Chamber,  and 
while  Sumner  was  seated  at  his  desk  writing,  struck 
him  again  and  again  on  the  head  with  a  heavy  gutta- 
percha  cane  an  inch  in  diameter.  Sumner  fell  back  in 
his  chair  unconscious  and  with  the  blood  running  over 
his  face.  The  House  by  a  vote  of  121  to  95  failed  to 
expel  Brooks  —  as  a  two-thirds  majority  was  necessary. 
But  he  at  once  resigned  his  seat,  and,  after  being  treated 
as  a  hero  for  three  weeks  in  his  State,  was  re-elected  to 
Congress.  The  South  either  excused  his  action  or  ap- 
proved of  it,  while  the  North  denounced  it  in  unmeasured 
scorn. 

XXXVI.    THE  DRED  SCOTT  DECISION:  1856. 

Two  days  after  the  slave  power  had  inaugurated  a 
President  of  the  United  States,  the  Supreme  Court 
handed  down  a  decision  intended  to  be  of  far-reaching 
effect.  It  related  to  slavery  in  the  Territories.  Dred 
Scott  was  the  slave  of  an  army  surgeon  who  resided  in 
Missouri.  Hi's  master  had  taken  him  to  Illinois  and  later 
to  Minnesota.  The  laws  of  Illinois  prohibited  slavery  in 
that  State,  and  Congress  in  1820  had  prohibited  slavery 
in  Minnesota.  In  1853  Scott  began  a  suit  for  his  liberty 
in  the  courts  of  the  United  States.  He  claimed  his  free- 
dom on  the  ground  of  residence  in  a  free  State  and  Ter- 


THE    DRED    SCOTT    DECISION.  73 

ritory.  The  case  came  up  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court  and  was  decided  March  6,  1856. 

The  decision  consisted  of  two  distinct  parts:  The  first 
held  that  Scott  was  not  a  citizen  of  Missouri  and  hence 
not  entitled  to  sue  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States; 
that  the  laws  of  Illinois  did  not  set  him  free ;  that  "  the 
right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly 
affirmed  in  the  Constitution;"  that  the  law  passed  by 
Congress  forbidding  slavery  in  Minnesota  was  unconsti- 
tutional, and  that  Dred  Scott  be  therefore  sent  back  to 
slavery. 

The  second  part  of  the  decision  went  far  beyond  the 
question  of  one  man's  liberty.  It  held  that  Congress 
could  no  more  exclude  slaves  from  the  Territories  than 
it  could  shut  out  any  other  form  of  property,  and  that 
Congress  was  bound  to  protect  the  slave-owner's  right 
to  his  property.  At  one  blow  this  decision  swept  away 
every  law  and  established  the  right  to  slavery  in  every 
Territory  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  No 
appeal  could  be  taken  from  this  great  court  except  the 
appeal  to  arms.  The  slave  power  now  held  two  of  the 
departments  of  the  government  and  defied  the  third. 

The  judges  were  influenced  by  the  society  in  which 
they  moved.  Five  of  them  were  southern  men.  They 
often  heard  the  debates  in  Congress.  They  dined  and 
talked  with  the  leaders  of  the  South.  There  was  no 
plot  to  influence  their  decision,  but  the  judges  soon  came 
to  believe  that  by  forever  settling  the  slavery  question 
they  would  render  the  Supreme  Court  illustrious. 

But  there  was  a  general  impression  at  the  North  that 
the  decision  was  the  result  of  a  plot.  This  idea  was  best 
expressed  by  Lincoln:  "If  we  saw  a  lot  of  framed  tim- 
bers gotten  out  at  different  times  and  places  by  different 


74  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

workmen  —  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger  and 
James,  —  and  if  we  saw  these  timbers  joined  together  and 
exactly  made  the  frame  of  a  house,  with  tenons  and  mor- 
tises all  fitting,  what  is  the  conclusion?  We  find  it  im- 
possible not  to  believe  that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and 
Roger  and  James  all  understood  one  another  from  the 
beginning,  and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  before 
the  first  blow  was  struck."  This  statement  was  very 
popular,  but  it  did  not  portray  the  real  influences  back 
of  the  great  decision. 

The  opinion  of  the  court  filled  two  hundred  and  forty 
printed  pages  and  was  a  cold  and  pitiless  review  of  the 
bondage  and  degradation  of  the  negroes.  Lincoln  well 
expressed  its  spirit  toward  the  slave:  "All  the  powers 
of  earth  seem  rapidly  combining  against  him.  Mammon 
is  after  him,  ambition  follows,  philosophy  and  the  theol- 
ogy of  the  day  is  fast  joining  the  cry.  They  have  him 
in  his  prison  house,  they  have  searched  his  person  and 
left  no  prying  instrument  with  him.  One  after  another 
they  have  closed  the  iron  doors  upon  him,  and  now  they 
have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in  with  a  lock  of  a  hundred 
keys,  which  can  never  be  unlocked  without  the  concur- 
rence of  every  key,  the  keys  in  the  hands  of  a  hundred 
different  men,  and  they  scattered  to  a  hundred  different 
and  distant  places." 

XXXVII.    THE  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS 
DEBATE:  1858. 

The  Dred  Scott  decision  gave  an  impetus  to  slavery 
agitation.  In  the  election  of  1858  the  Republicans  every- 
where polled  a  much  heavier  vote.  Pennsylvania,  the 
President's  home  State,  voted  strongly  against  his  ad- 


THE   LINCOLN    AND    DOUGLAS    DEBATE.  75 

ministration.  Illinois,  for  the  first  time,  was  carried  by 
the  Republicans.  In  this  State  the  "  Lincoln  and  Doug- 
las Debate  "  held  the  attention  of  the  nation  for  months 
to  the  single  issue  of  slavery  extension.  All  through  the 
North  sprang  up  renewed  interest  in  the  slavery  ques- 
tion. 

The  character  and  reputation  of  the  men  had  much  to 
do  with  the  importance  of  the  debate  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas.  Although  a  young  man,  Douglas  had 
been  a  leading  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  had  been  in 
Congress  for  years,  and  in  the  Senate  had  met  no  equal 
in  debate.  His  clear  and  vigorous  English,  his  great 
energy  in  bold  and  direct  statement  and  his  rapidity  and 
fertility  of  mind  were  the  striking  qualities  of  this  natural 
orator  and  advocate.  Long  practice  had  taught  him  the 
moods  and  emotions  of  assemblages,  and  no  man  before 
an  audience  was  better  qualified  to  act  the  part  of  Marc 
Antony.  But  his  situation  demanded  all  his  ability.  It 
was  well  known  that  the  President  and  his  friends  de- 
sired to  see  Douglas  defeated.  With  most  men  this  fact 
would  have  meant  defeat.  The  Republican  party,  too, 
was  daily  increasing  in  strength.  With  loss  of  friends 
and  increase  of  enemies,  Douglas  now  put  forth  the 
greatest  eftort  of  his  life. 

Lincoln  was  now  in  his  fiftieth  year.  From  poverty 
and  obscurity  he  had  raised  himself  to  leadership  in  his 
State.  Without  the  aid  of  schools  he  had  won  high  rank 
for  his  pure  and  clear  English.  In  a  rude  society,  he  had 
all  the  instincts  of  a  gentleman.  His  kindness  was  as 
deeply  inwrought  in  his  nature  as  was  his  humor.  He 
loved  the  truth  for  its  own  sake.  He  believed  in  the 
right  and  that  in  the  end  the  right  would  triumph.  He 
had  an  abiding  faith  in  the  common  people.  He  said: 


76  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

"  You  can  fool  some  of  the  people  all  the  time,  and  all  of 
the  people  some  of  the  time,  but  you  can't  fool  all  the 
people  all  the  time."  This  man  now  stood  before  au- 
diences where  his  character  was  known,  and  his  personal 
worth  spoke  louder  than  the  forceful  and  adroit  oratory 
of  Douglas. 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  were  both  candidates  to  repre- 
sent Illinois  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  In  June 
Lincoln  said:  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand.  I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure  half 
slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall, 
but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  be- 
come all  one  thing  or  all  the  other."  In  July  Douglas 
attacked  this  doctrine  in  a  speech  at  Chicago.  After  two 
or  three  speeches  by  each  candidate,  Lincoln  challenged 
Douglas  to  a  joint  debate.  Douglas  accepted,  and  seven 
joint  discussions  were  held  in  different  parts  of  the  State. 
The  first  was  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  August  21,  and  the  last 
at  Alton,  October  15.  They  were  held  in  the  open  air, 
usually  in  groves,  and  from  five  to  ten  thousand  persons 
were  present  at  each  discussion.  The  single  issue  of 
slavery  was  presented  by  each  orator.  Lincoln  asked 
Douglas  if  a  Territory  could  exclude  slavery  before  such 
Territory  became  a  State.  He  knew  if  Douglas  should 
say  "  No,"  and  thus  affirm  that  slavery  was  fastened 
upon  a  Territory  in  spite  of  its  people,  that  the  author 
and  champion  of  "  squatter  sovereignty  "  could  never  be 
Senator  from  Illinois.  He  knew  if  Douglas  should  say 
"  Yes,"  and  thus  affirm  that  a  Territory  could  exclude 
slavery,  that  this  would  flatly  contradict  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  would  offend  the  entire  South,  and  that  the  am- 
bitious statesman  could  never  be  President  of  the  United 
States.  Douglas  saw  the  full  force  of  the  question.  He 


JOHN  BROWN'S  RAID.  77 

answered  that  a  Territory  could  not  directly  exclude 
slavery,  but  that  it  could  by  unfriendly  laws  so  hamper 
the  slave-holders'  rights  that  slavery  would  be  practi- 
cally excluded.  This  halting  answer  cost  Douglas  the 
Presidency.  Lincoln's  question  was  a  wedge  between 
the  northern  and  southern  Democrats. 

In  November  following  the  debate  the  Republicans 
polled  125,430  and  the  Democrats  121,609  votes;  the 
friends  of  Buchanan  cast  5,071  ballots.  Owing  to  a 
previous  apportionment,  the  Democrats  still  controlled 
the  legislature,  and  Douglas  was  soon  re-elected  to  the 
Senate. 

But  the  moral  victory  remained  with  the  new  party. 
The  Illinois  campaign  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
whole  Union.  Lincoln's  speeches  were  published  in  the 
large  cities  of  the  North,  and  formed  a  kind  of  platform 
for  the  Republican  party.  Longfellow  read  his  speeches 
with  approval.  Greeley  came  to  his  support  in  the  col- 
umns of  the  Tribune.  Colfax  and  Chase  spoke  many 
times  in  Illinois.  Douglas,  beside  meeting  Lincoln  in 
the  seven  debates,  made  a  hundred  speeches  in  the  State. 
Both  North  and  South  knew  that  the  campaign  was  a 
contest  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and  that  freedom 
had  won. 

XXXVIII.     JOHN  BROWN'S  RAID:  1859. 

The  Illinois  campaign  of  1858  aroused  the  conscience 
of  the  North,  but  the  next  year  John  Brown's  raid  deeply 
stirred  the  wrath  of  the  entire  South.  Brown  was  a 
religious  enthusiast,  and  his  plan  was  wildly  absurd,  but 
his  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry  on  October  17  sent  an  instant 
and  profound  alarm  of  a  slave  insurrection  throughout 
the  fifteen  slave  States. 


78  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

John  Brown  was  the  sixth  in  descent  from  Peter 
Brown,  who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  He  was  born 
in  Connecticut  in  1800,  but  with  his  parents  came  to 
Ohio  five  years  later.  After  leaving  his  father's  farm 
he  tried  and  failed  in  the  business  of  a  tanner,  a  surveyor, 
a  farmer,  and  of  a  dealer  in  wool.  In  October,  1855,  he 
went  to  Kansas  with  his  sons,  and  in  the  border  warfare 
he  soon  became  the  terror  of  the  pro-slavery  party. 

He  was  tall  and  slender  and  impressed  one  by  his 
serious  manner.  He  was  deeply  religious,  but  he  was  a 
Puritan  transplanted  to  the  nineteenth  century.  He 
read  the  Old  Testament  constantly  and  greatly  admired 
Oliver  Cromwell.  He  had  a  strong  will  and  undoubted 
courage.  He  believed  that  "without  the  shedding  of 
blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins."  His  education  was 
limited,  his  faith  dogmatic.  He  had  a  burning  hatred 
for  slavery,  and  his  religious  mind  transformed  all  the 
great  influences  of  freedom  into  a  personal  call  to  duty. 

For  twenty  years  he  had  pondered  over  some  way  to 
free  the  slaves  of  the  South ;  but  out  of  his  experience  in 
Kansas  he  had  formed  the  plan  to  seize  the  arsenal  at 
Harper's  Ferry  and  then  call  all  the  slaves  to  freedom. 
He  expected  that  thousands  of  slaves  would  join  him, 
and  that  Northern  men  would  flock  to  his  defense.  In 
1857  he  ordered  of  a  Connecticut  firm  a  thousand  pikes, 
which  two  years  later  were  used  by  him  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  In  the  early  part  of  1858  he  was  instructing 
twelve  men  in  Iowa  in  military  drill,  and  a  little  later  he 
visited  Frederick  Douglas  at  his  home  in  Rochester,  New 
York,  and  explained  his  plan  in  full.  He  then  went  to 
Boston,  where  he  received  some  encouragement,  re- 
turned to  Iowa,  collected  his  band  and  with  them  went  east 
by  way  of  Chicago  and  Detroit  to  Chatham,  in  Canada. 


JOHN  BROWN'S  RAID.  79 

Here  he  outlined  his  plan  to  a  motley  assembly  of 
negroes  and  white  persons  —  men,  women  and  boys  — 
and  was  b}'  them  elected  commander-in-chief.  Disap-. 
pointed  in  his  hopes  of  aid  from  Boston  he  was  forced 
to  put  off  his  attack  for  nearly  a  year.  But  on  July  4, 
1859,  Brown  and  his  two  sons  rented  a  farm  five  miles 
from  Harper's  Ferry.  Here  they  quietly  collected  some 
rifles  and  tents,  and  assembled  a  small  body  of  men  and 
boys.  All  was  done  so  well  that  no  suspicion  arose. 

Harper's  Ferry  had  a  population  of  5,000,  and  the 
government  arsenal  usually  contained  over  100,000  stand 
of  arms.  At  8:00  P.  M.,  Sunday  evening,  October  16, 
1859,  Brown,  with  eighteen  men,  left  the  farm  and 
reached  the  town  three  hours  later.  They  at  once 
captured  the  arsenal  and  posted  sentinels.  They  detained 
the  midnight  passenger  train  for  three  hours.  In  the 
morning  a  thousand  men  in  arms  attacked  Brown  and 
his  followers  and  drove  them  into  a  brick  engine  house. 
In  answer  to  telegrams  President  Buchanan  sent  eighty 
marines,  under  Robert  E.  Lee,  from  the  navy  yard  at 
Washington,  and  these  arrived  at  Harper's  Ferry  on 
Monday  evening.  The  next  morning,  on  Brown's  re- 
fusal to  surrender,  the  engine  house  was  stormed  and 
Brown,  with  six  others,  were  made  prisoners.  Ten  of  the 
band  were  killed  and  five  escaped.  Brown  was  soon 
tried  and  sentenced  to  death.  On  the  way  to  the  gal- 
lows he  kissed  a  negro  child  and  spoke  of  the  beautv  of 
the  landscape.  In  the  presence  of  death  he  had  no  fear 
and  no  regret. 

The  wrath  of  the  South  rose  high  at  Brown's  attempt 
to  free  the  slaves  in  a  slave  State.  The  North  was  ac- 
cused of  inciting  and  then  justifying  the  attack.  The 
Republican  party  was  held  responsible  for  what  the 


8O  FREEDOM   AND    SLAVERY. 

slave-holders  thought  was  a  lawless  and  criminal  in- 
vasion of  a  peaceful  State.  The  raid  strengthened  the 
enmity  between  the  two  sections  and  hastened  the  civil 


XXXIX.    THE  CAMPAIGN  AND  ELECTION 
OF  1860. 

Six  months  after  John  Brown's  raid  the  Democratic 
National  convention  met  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 
The  delegates  from  the  fifteen  slave  States  demanded 
that  the  platform  should  clearly  set  forth  the  right  to 
hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  and  the  duty  of  Congress  to 
protect  slavery  in  such  Territory.  The  northern  dele- 
gates refused  to  agree  to  this  imperious  demand.  On 
such  a  platform  they  knew  that  their  candidate,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  could  never  be  elected.  The  convention,  by 
a  vote  of  165  to  138,  refused  the  demand  to  force  slavery 
into  the  Territories.  The  delegates  from  Louisiana, 
Alabama,  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  Florida,  Texas 
and  Arkansas  at  once  withdrew  from  the  convention.  If 
they  could  not  rule  they  would  ruin  the  Democratic 
party.  The  remainder  of  the  convention  adjourned  to 
meet  again  in  Baltimore  on  June  18,  1860.  At  the  ap- 
pointed time  and  place  the  delegates  reassembled,  and 
seven  States — Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  California  —  with- 
drew. The  remainder  of  the  convention  nominated 
Douglas  for  President.  The  southern  Democrats  nomi- 
nated John  C.  Breckenridge  for  President.  This  hope- 
lessly divided  the  Democratic  party  and  broke  the 
strongest  bond  between  the  North  and  South. 

The  Republican  National  convention  was  held  in  Chi- 
cago on  May  16,  1860.  Four  hundred  and  sixty-six 


CAMPAIGN    AND   ELECTION   OF    i860.  8 1 

delegates  assembled  in  a  large  square  building  called  the 
Wigwam,  and  ten  thousand  spectators  watched  their 
proceedings.  The  noted  lawyer,  William  M.  Evarts, 
headed  the  New  York  delegation.  Horace  Greeley  was 
there  as  the  representative  of  the  distant  State  of  Oregon. 
The  interest  was  eager  and  even  intense.  The  whole 
assembly  was  confident  that  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States  would  there  be  nominated.  Three  candi- 
dates—  Lincoln,  Chase  and  Seward  —  were  before  the 
convention.  On  the  first  ballot  Lincoln  received  102  and 
Seward  175  votes.  On  the  third  ballot  Lincoln  received 
231  and  Seward  180  votes.  Only  three  more  would 
give  Lincoln  a  majority  of  the  convention.  A  hush  fell 
upon  the  great  assembly.  Just  then  Ohio  gave  four 
more  votes  to  Lincoln  and  assured  his  nomination.  En- 
thusiasm now  broke  forth,  and  a  cannon  placed  on  the 
roof  was  fired  off.  At  the  close  of  the  third  ballot  Lin- 
coln received  364  votes,  and  stood  forth  the  standard- 
bearer  of  a  young,  vigorous,  determined  and  widely 
extended  political  party. 

A  Constitutional  Union  party  met  in  convention  at 
Baltimore  and  nominated  John  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  for 
President.  It  opposed  both  the  Democrats  and  Repub- 
licans, and  pledged  a  firm  allegiance  to  "  the  Constitution 
of  the  country,  the  union  of  the  States,  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws." 

Four  candidates  were  now  before  the  public.  Lincoln 
stood  pledged  against  the  extension  of  slavery.  Breck- 
inridge  was  pledged  to  extend  it  bylaw.  Douglas  aimed 
to  evade  the  issue  by  his  doctrine  of  "squatter  sover- 
eignty." Bell  hoped  to  avoid  the  issue  by  ignoring  it. 

Enthusiasm  and  deep  earnestness  marked  the  cam- 
paign.    Lincoln  took  almost  no  part  in  it,  but  he  closely 
6 


82 


FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 


observed  the  great  movement  that  was  to  place  him  at 
the  head  of  the  Nation.  Seward's  fame  filled  the  North 
as  he  spoke  in  various  places  from  New  York  to  Min- 
nesota. Long  torchlight  processions,  often  numbering 
twenty  thousand  men,  appeared  for  the  first  time.  Low- 
ell, Whittier,  Holmes,  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  George 
W.  Curtis  rendered  active  aid  to  the  Republican  party. 
The  election  on  November  6,  1860,  showed  the  wide 
separation  of  the  North  and  the  South.  Lincoln  carried 
every  northern  State  except  New  Jersey,  and  even  in 
this  State  he  received  four  of  the  seven  electoral  votes. 
Breckinridge  carried  every  southern  State  except  Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  but  even  here 
three  of  these  States  voted  for  Bell,  who  was  a  slave- 
holder, and  Missouri  voted  for  Douglas,  whose  ability  in 
Congress  had  ever  been  on  the  side  of  slavery.  Lincoln 
received  1,866,452;  Douglas,  1,375,157;  Breckinridge, 
847,953,  and  Bell,  590,631  votes. 

XL.     SECESSION:  1860-61. 

.  Since  1850  the  leading  men  of  the  South  had  deter- 
mined on  secession  if  they  could  not  maintain  with  the 
North  equal  power  in  the  Union.  It  seemed  to  them 
that  the  North  had  gained  in  every  contest  over  slavery. 
In  1820  their  right  to  hold  slaves  had  been  abolished 
over  a  vast  region  north  and  west  of  Missouri.  They 
had  brought  on  the  Mexican  war  to  extend  slavery,  and 
all  but  Texas  was  practically  free  territory.  They  had 
forced  through  Congress  a  fugitive  slave  law,  and  it 
could  not  be  enforced.  They  had  secured  the  law  to 
establish  slavery  in  Kansas,  and  yet  free  men  of  the 
North  had  actual  possession  of  the  Territory.  They 


SECESSION.  83 

had  gained  from  the  Supreme  Court  a  decision  which 
might  serve  as  a  rock  against  the  waves  of  public  opin- 
ion, and  it  had  been  submerged.  Every  victory  had 
turned  to  defeat.  When  Lincoln  was  elected  they  re- 
solved on  independence  from  a  power  they  could  not 
control. 

For  years  the  idea  of  a  great  slave  republic  had  been 
rising  in  the  Southern  mind.  By  the  war  with  Mexico 
the  leaders  had  hoped  to  carry  slavery  clear  through  to 
the  Pacific.  Later  on  they  intended  to  conquer  Mexico, 
and  spread  slavery  throughout  its  whole  extent.  They 
stood  ready  at  any  time  to  declare  war  against  Spain, 
and  take  Cuba  by  force.  With  such  vantage  ground  it 
would  be  easy  to  gain  and  hold  northern  South  America. 
Around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  would  then  stand  a  huge 
slave  empire,  able  to  withstand  the  North,  and  secure 
the  existence  of  slavery  for  the  next  century. 

The  South  resolved  on  secession  if  Lincoln  should  be 
elected.  The  legislature  of  South  Carolina  remained  in 
session  till  after  November  6  to  hear  the  result  of  the 
election.  WThen  the  news  was  flashed  over  the  wires 
that  Lincoln  would  be  the  next  President,  the  legislature 
voted  money  for  arms  and  called  a  State  convention. 
On  December  18,  1860,  this  body  met  in  Charleston 
amid  rejoicing  and  deep  feeling.  Many  gray-haired  men 
were  present.  They  soon  passed  the  Ordinance  of 
Secession:  "We,  the  people  of  the  State  of  South  Car- 
olina, in  convention  assembled,  do  declare  and  ordain 
.  .  .  that  the  union  now  subsisting  between  South 
Carolina  and  other  States  under  the  name  of  'The 
United  States  of  America'  is  hereby  dissolved."  As 
the  last  word  was  read  by  an  aged  slave-holder,  the  con- 
vention broke  into  cheers,  the  crowd  outside  sent  up  a 


84  FREEDOM    AND   SLAVERY. 

great  shout,  church  bells  were  rung,  and  a  cannon  sent 
forth  its  ominous  note. 

In  the  evening  the  members  of  the  convention  entered 
Institute  Hall  in  solemn  procession  for  the  purpose  of 
formally  signing  the  Ordinance  of  Secession.  The  docu- 
ment was  first  read,  and  then  a  white-haired  minister 
asked  God's  blessing  on  the  great  step  taken.  It  took 
two  hours  for  all  the  members  to  sign  the  act  of  separa- 
tion, and  many  recalled  the  famous  scene  of  1776  in 
Independence  Hall.  Crowds  of  ladies  in  the  galleries 
graced  the  occasion.  Military  companies  marched 
through  the  streets,  huge  bonfires  lighted  up  many 
squares,  and  fireworks  flashed  and  glittered  in  the  dark- 
ness. 

South  Carolina  at  once  took  measures  to  show  that 
she  was  a  free  and  independent  nation.  The  governor 
organized  a  cabinet,  a  new  flag  was  adopted,  and  the 
Charleston  papers  published  news  from  the  United  States 
under  the  heading  "Foreign  News."  Commissioners 
were  soon  sent  to  Washington  to  secure  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  the  surrender  of  all  forts 
and  public  buildings  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 

On  January  5,  1861,  the  Senators  from  Mississippi, 
Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana  and  Texas  met  in 
Washington  and  resolved  on  secession,  and  by  Febru- 
ary i  every  one  of  these  six  States  had  formally  with- 
drawn from  the  Union.  As  each  State  seceded,  its 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  left  Washing- 
ton for  the  South.  As  a  rule  they  made  no  speeches 
and  presented  no  list  of  grievances  in  breaking  the  unity 
and  grandeur  of  the  nation. 


DECISION    AT    THE    SOUTH.  85 

XLL    THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF 
AMERICA:  1861. 

On  February  4  forty-two  delegates,  representing 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisi- 
ana and  Florida,  met  in  the  State  House  at  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  adopted  a  temporary  government,  and  elected 
Jefferson  Davis  President  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens 
Vice-President.  These  officers  were  to  serve  until  a 
permanent  constitution  was  adopted.  On  February  18 
President  Davis  was  inaugurated  in  the  presence  of  a 
large  assemblage.  He  tken  said:  "  Our  new  govern- 
ment is  founded  upon  ,  .  .  the  great  truth  that  the 
negro  is  not  equal  to  the  white  man."  On  March  II  a 
permanent  constitution  was  adopted  by  seven  States. 

XLII.  THE  PEACE  CONGRESS:  1861. 
But  a  strong  effort  was  now  made  to  save  the  great 
Union.  A  Peace  Congress  of  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  commissioners  from  twenty-one  States  met  in 
Washington  on  February  4  and  remained  in  session  for 
twenty-three  days.  It  advocated  "the  extension  of  the 
Missouri  compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,"  and  payment 
from  the  National  "Treasury  for  all  fugitive  slaves  res- 
cued after  arrest." 

XLIII.  DECISION  AT  THE  SOUTH. 
While  the  North  waited  and  did  nothing,  all  at  the 
South  was  decision  and  activity.  As  each  State  seceded 
it  took  possession  of  the  post-offices,  custom-houses  and 
forts  within  its  borders.  Arms  were  purchased  and  large 
forces  of  men  were  instructed  in  military  drill.  Prom- 
inent men  in  the  army,  navy  and  civil  service  of  the 
United  States  were  constantly  resigning  to  join  the  South^ 


86  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

XLIV.    DIVISION  AT  THE  NORTH. 

President  Buchanan  declared  that  secession  was  ille- 
gal, but  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  had  no 
power  to  force  a  State  back  into  the  Union.  To  destroy 
the  Union  was  illegal,  but  to  preserve  it  was  unconstitu- 
tional. The  President  used  his  position  to  impress  upon 
the  country  that  the  North  was  wrong  and  that  the 
South  was  right.  The  New  York  Tribune  stated:  "If 
the  cotton  States  shall  decide  that  they  can  do  better  out 
of  the  Union  than  in  it,  we  insist  on  letting  them  go  in 
peace."  Other  leading  papers  at  the  North  declared  for 
some  peaceful  settlement  of  all  questions  in  dispute.  On 
January  14, 1861,  the  legislature  of  Ohio  asked  the  other 
States  to  repeal  their  personal  liberty  laws,  and  in  three 
months  Rhode  Island,  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  had 
complied  with  the  request.  The  North  quailed  in  the 
presence  of  actual  disunion. 

XLV.    LINCOLN'S  JOURNEY  TO  WASHING- 
TON: 1861. 

In  the  midst  of  this  uncertainty  all  eyes  turned  to  the 
coming  President.  Early  on  Monday  morning,  Febru- 
ary n,  1861,  Lincoln  went  from  his  home  to  the  small 
station  in  Springfield  to  take  the  train  for  the  East. 
More  than  a  thousand  of  his  friends  and  neighbors  had 
gathered  there  for  a  last  farewell.  In  silent  emotion  he 
grasped  the  hands  of  those  who  had  known  and  believed 
in  him.  His  progress  eastward  was  one  continued  ova- 
tion. At  Indianapolis  thirty-three  cannon  shots  greeted 
the  arrival  of  his  train.  Governor  Morton  met  him  at 
the  station  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  four  white  horses, 
and  they  drove  through  the  city  followed  by  the  legisla- 


LINCOLN'S  INAUGURATION.  87 

ture  and  other  State  officers.  In  Cincinnati  he  met  an 
immense  crowd,  and  then  went  northeast  to  Columbus, 
where  he  addressed  the  legislature  in  the  capitol.  From 
this  city  he  bore  east  to  Pittsburg,  and  then  northwest  to 
Cleveland.  Going  east  through  Buffalo  to  Albany,  he 
was  amazed  at  the  vast  crowds  that  met  him  in  the 
Empire  State.  At  Troy  he  spoke  to  fifteen  thousand 
people,  and  a  quarter  of  a  million  persons  saw  him  enter 
the  streets  of  New  York.  In  Philadelphia  the  vast  as- 
semblage surpassed  any  that  he  had  seen.  On  Febru- 
ary 22  he  spoke  in  Independence  Hall.  Up  to  this  time 
his  journey  had  been  determined  by  the  invitations  of 
cities  and  legislatures.  But  now  no  word  of  hospitality 
came  from  Maryland,  through  which  he  must  pass.  On 
the  contrary,  he  received  word  from  many  sources  that 
his  life  would  be  in  danger  in  Baltimore.  He  at  once 
took  a  night  train,  and  in  disguise  passed  through  the 
hostile  State  and  appeared  in  Washington  the  next 
morning. 

XLVL    LINCOLN'S  INAUGURATION: 
MARCH  4,  1861. 

On  March  4  he  was  inaugurated,  and  great  care  was 
taken  for  his  protection.  General  Scott  placed  the  whole 
city  under  military  guard,  and  received  reports  from  his 
troops  every  fifteen  minutes.  The  line  of  procession  was 
along  Pennsylvania  avenue  from  the  White  House  to  the 
Capitol.  Cavalry  guarded  all  the  side  streets,  and  sharp- 
shooters lined  the  roofs  along  Pennsylvania  avenue,  with 
instructions  to  watch  the  windows  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street.  Dense  masses  of  mounted  soldiers  guarded 
Lincoln  in  the  center  of  the  street.  The  same  care  was 
taken  on  his  return  to  the  White  House. 


00  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

On  his  way  from  Springfield  to  Waslr'ngton  Lincoln 
had  carefully  avoided  any  declaration  of  his  policy.  He 
wished  first  of  all  to  be  peacefully  inaugurated.  He  said: 
"  Let  us  do  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  the  big  things  first." 
But  when  he  stood  at  the  east  front  of  the  Capitol  he 
knew  that  responsibility  had  come  and  that  his  words 
would  be  flashed  to  every  part  of  the  nation.  He  de- 
clared he  would  maintain  the  Union,  and  he  threw  the 
whole  responsibility  for  war  upon  the  South. 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  yourselves  being  the  aggressors.  You 
can  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the 
government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to 
preserve,  protect  and  defend  it.  I  am  loath  to  close.  We 
are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection." 

XL VII.    THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH  COM- 
PARED: 1860. 

At  last  the  North  faced  the  South  with  a  practical 
declaration  of  war.  The  long  conflict  of  ideas  was  about 
to  end  and  the  conflict  of  force  to  begin.  It  will  throw 
light  on  the  great  civil  war  which  followed  to  compare 
the  resources  of  the  two  sections,  and  for  this  purpose 
the  census  of  1860  is  invaluable.  For  greater  clearness, 
round  numbers  will  be  given,  and  in  each  comparison 
the  seventeen  free  States  will  be  contrasted  with  the 
eleven  slave  States  which  seceded. 

From  Maine  to  Kansas,  and  from  New  Jersey  to  Min- 
nesota, seventeen  free  States  formed  a  united  and  pow- 


NORTH    AND   SOUTH    COMPARED.  89 

erful  nation.  It  had  an  area  of  over  600,000  square 
miles  and  a  population  of  19,000,000.  The  eleven  "Con- 
feder^te  States  of  America,"  extending  from  Virginia 
to  Texas,  formed  another  thoroughly  compact  nation, 
with  an  area  of  more  than  700,000  square  miles,  and  a 
population  of  9,000,000.  The  war,  in  reality,  was  be- 
tween two  distinct  and  independent  nations.  The  four 
slave  States  — Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  Mis- 
souri—  furnished  men  and  supplies  to  both  sides.  The 
distant  and  thinly  inhabited  States  of  California  and 
Oregon  gave  little  aid  to  the  North. 

The  North  had  great  resources  in  its  varied  indus- 
tries, while  the  South  relied  mainly  on  the  one  occupa- 
tion of  farming.  The  seventeen  free  States  had  over 
100,000  manufacturing  establishments  worth  more  than 
$800,000,000,  and  employing  more  than  1,000,000  per- 
sons; the  eleven  slave  States  had  20,000  manufacturing 
establishments  of  all  kinds,  worth  less  than.  $100,000, 
and  employing  1 10,000  persons.  The  North  had  twice 
as  many  miles  of  railways,  and  five  times  the  ocean 
tonnage.  Even  in  agriculture  the  Northern  farmers 
owned  $4,800,000,000  worth  of  farm  lands,  while  the 
Southern  planter  had  only  $1,800,000,000  in  such  prop- 
erty. 

The  North  led  in  intellectual  as  well  as  in  material  re- 
sources. It  had  1,200  printing  establishments  to  150  in 
the  South.  North  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  the 
Ohio  river  there  were  250  dailies  and  1,800  weekly 
newspapers;  while  in  the  eleven  slave  States  there  were 
only  66  dailies  and  600  weekly  newspapers.  The  North 
had  over  6,000  public  libraries,  circulating  more  than 
5,000,000  volumes,  while  the  South  had  half  as  many 
libraries,  sending  out  less  than  2,000,000  volumes.  Two 


90  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

million  seven  hundred  thousand  pupils  attended  the  pub- 
lic schools  in  the  North  to  580,00  in  the  South.  From 
1790  to  1849  the  North  took  out  16,514  patents  for  in- 
ventions, while  the  South  had  only  2,202  such  patents. 

XLVIII.     FORT  SUMTER:  APRIL  12,  1861. 

As  fast  as  the  States  seceded  they  took  possession  of  the 
forts  and  arsenals  within  their  borders,  and  in  the  early 
months  of  1861  there  remained  to  tha  Union  only  three 
forts:  Fortress  Monroe,  in  Virginia;  Fort  Sumter,  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  defenses  at  Key  West,  Florida. 
In  January  President  Buchanan  ordered  the  vessel,  the 
Star  of  the  West,  to  take  supplies  to  Fort  Sumter.  As 
this  vessel  was  entering  the  harbor  on  January  9,  1861, 
she  was  fired  on  by  a  Confederate  battery  and  compelled 
to  return  to  New  York.  This  was  the  first  overt  act  of 
war;  but  President  Buchanan  did  nothing. 

In  April  the  Confederates  resolved  to  capture  Fort 
Sumter.  This  fort  stood  in  the  center  of  the  harbor, 
commanding  its  entrance,  and  contained  forty-eight  can- 
nons, hundreds  of  barrels  of  powder  and  many  small 
arms.  It  was  held  by  Major  Anderson  and  127  men. 
The  Confederates  erected  strong  land  batteries  within 
reach  of  the  fort.  On  Major  Anderson's  refusal  to  sur- 
render the  place  they  opened  fire  at  4:30  A.  M.,  April 
12,  1861.  Nineteen  batteries  hurled  shot  and  shell 
against  the  solid  walls.  The  attack  was  begun  on  Fri- 
day morning  and  continued  for  thirty-four  hours.  On 
Saturday,  at  11:00  A.  M.,  the  fort  was  on  fire,  and 
through  the  dense  masses  of  black  smoke  the  flames 
shot  upward.  A  white  flag  soon  rose  above  the  walls, 
and  the  fort  was  formally  surrendered.  Major  Anderson 
and  his  men  were  allowed  to  leave  for  the  North. 


"A   VISION    OF    THE    WAR."  pi 

The  attack  on  Fort  Sumter  marked  an  epoch.  It 
ended  a  long  conflict  of  ideas  and  ushered  in  a  conflict 
of  force.  It  began  the  final  struggle  between  freedom 
and  slavey.  The  lurid  and  sinister  glare  from  those 
guns  on  that  eventful  Friday  morning,  and  the  roar  from 
their  iron  throats,  should  have  sent  a  thrill  of  hope  and 
joy  to  4,000,000  slaves. 


XLIX.     OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  news  of  the  surrender  was  flashed  over  the  Union. 
On  April  15  Lincoln  issued  a  call  for  75,000  troops  to 
put  down  the  rebellion.  Governors  of  States  at  once 
loyally  responded,  and  in  forty-eight  hours  a  Massachu- 
setts regiment  was  on  board  a  train  bound  for  Washing- 
ton. The  stars  and  stripes  decorated  the  homes  of 
millions  at  the  North.  Patriotic  speeches  were  made 
from  the  platform  and  pulpit.  The  newspapers  were 
filled  with  the  news  of  preparation.  Cannons  were  be- 
ing cast  in  the  great  foundries,  and  new  foundries  were 
being  built. 

L.    "A  VISION  OF  THE  WAR." 

"  The  past,  as  it  were,  rises  before  me  like  a  dream. 
Again  we  are  in  the  great  struggle  for  national  life.  We 
hear  the  sound  of  preparation  —  the  music  of  the  boister- 
ous drums  —  the  silver  voices  of  heroic  bugles.  We  see 
thousands  of  assemblages,  and  hear  the  appeals  of  ora- 
tors; we  see  the  pale  cheeks  of  women,  and  the  flushed 
faces  of  men ;  and  in  those  assemblages  we  see  all  the 
dead  whose  dust  we  have  covered  with  flowers.  We 
lose  sight  of  them  no  more.  We  are  with  them  when 


p2  FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

they  enlist  in  the  great  army  of  freedom.  We  see  them 
part  with  those  they  love.  Some  are  walking  for  the 
last  time  in  quiet,  woody  places  with  the  maidens  they 
adore.  We  hear  the  whisperings  and  the  sweet  vows 
of  eternal  love  as  they  lingeringly  part  forever.  Others 
are  bending  over  cradles  kissing  babes  that  are  asleep. 
Some  are  receiving  the  blessings  of  old  men.  Some  are 
parting  with  mothers,  who  hold  them  and  press  them  to 
their  hearts  again  and  again,  and  say  nothing;  and  some 
are  talking  with  wives,  and  endeavoring  with  brave 
words  spoken  in  the  old  tones  to  drive  away  the  awful 
fear.  We  see  them  part.  We  see  the  wife  standing  in 
the  door  with  the  babe  in  her  arms  —  standing  in  the  sun- 
light sobbing  —  at  the  turn  of  the  road  a  hand  waves  — 
she  answers  by  holding  high  in  her  loving  hands  the 
child.  He  is  gone,  and  forever. 

"We  see  them  all  as  they  march  proudly  away  under 
the  flaunting  flags,  keeping  time  to  the  wild,  grand  music 
of  war  —  marching  down  the  streets  of  the  great  cities  — 
through  the  towns  and  across  the  prairies  —  down  to  the 
fields  of  glory,  to  do  and  to  die  for  the  eternal  right. 

"  We  go  with  them,  one  and  all.  We  are  by  their 
side  on  all  the  gory  fields,  in  all  the  hospitals  of  pain  — 
on  all  the  weary  marches.  We  stand  guard  with  them 
in  the  wild  storm  and  under  the  quiet  stars.  We  are 
with  them  in  ravines  running  with  blood  —  in  the  fur- 
rows of  old  fields.  We  are  with  them  between  contend- 
ing hosts,  unable  to  move,  wild  with  thirst,  the  life  ebbing 
slowly  away  among  the  withered  leaves.  We  see  them 
pierced  by  balls  and  torn  with  shells,  in  the  trenches  of 
forts,  and  in  the  whirlwind  of  the  charge,  where  men 
become  iron,  with  nerves  of  steel. 


"A   VISION    OF   THE    WAR."  93 

"  We  are  with  them  in  the  prisons  of  hatred  and  fam- 
ine, but  human  speech  can  never  tell  what  they  endured. 

"We  are  at  home  when  the  news  comes  that  they  are 
dead.  We  see  the  maiden  in  the  shadow  of  her  sorrow. 
We  see  the  silvered  head  of  the  old  man  bowed  with 
the  last  grief. 

"  The  past  rises  before  us,  and  we  see  four  millions  of 
human  beings  governed  by  the  lash  —  we  see  them 
bound  hand  and  foot — we  hear  the  strokes  of  cruel 
whips  —  we  see  the  hounds  tracking  women  through 
tangled  swamps.  We  see  babes  sold  from  the  breasts 
of  mothers.  Cruelty  unspeakable!  Outrage  infinite! 

"  Four  million  bodies  in  chains  —  four  million  souls  in 
fetters.  All  the  sacred  relations  of  wife,  mother,  father 
and  child  trampled  beneath  the  brutal  feet  of  might. 
And  all  this  was  done  under  our  own  beautiful  banner 
of  the  free. 

"The  past  rises  before  us.  We  hear  the  roar  and 
shriek  of  the  bursting  shell.  The  broken  fetters  fall. 
There  heroes  died.  We  look.  Instead  of  slaves  we  see 
men  and  women  and  children.  The  wand  of  progress 
touches  the  auction  block,  the  slave-pen  and  the  whip- 
ping-post, and  we  see  homes  and  firesides,  and  school- 
houses  and  books,  and  where  all  was  want  and  crime, 
and  cruelty  and  fear,  we  see  the  faces  of  the  free. 

"These  heroes  are  dead.  They  died  for  liberty  — 
they  died  for  us.  They  are  at  rest.  They  sleep  in  the 
land  they  made  free,  under  the  flag  they  rendered  stain- 
less, under  the  solemn  pines,  the  sad  hemlocks,  the  tear- 
ful willows,  the  embracing  vines.  They  sleep  beneath 
the  shadows  of  the  clouds,  careless  alike  of  sunshine  or 
storm,  each  in  the  windowless  palace  of  rest.  Earth  may 
run  red  with  other  wars  —  they  are  at  peace.  In  the 


94  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

midst  of  battle,  in  the  roar  of  conflict,  they  found  the 
serenity  of  death.  I  have  one  sentiment  for  the  soldiers- 
living  and  dead  —  cheers  for  the  living  and  tears  for  the 
dead." 

LI.     THE  AREA  OF  THE  WAR. 

Seventeen  free  States  now  resolutely  determined  to 
maintain  the  Union  and  to  put  down  the  rebellion  in  the 
eleven  slave  States.  The  war  spread  over  an  area  of 
800,000  square  miles.  It  lasted  four  years  and  held  the 
attention  of  the  civilized  world.  Its  two  great  issues 
were  —  the  liberty  of  the  slaves  and  the  existence  of  re- 
publican government. 

LII.    THE  UNION  AND  CONFEDERATE 
ARMIES. 

During  the  war  the  North  enrolled  in  its  armies 
2,850,000  and  the  South  1,100,000  soldiers.  Of  these 
4,000,000  men,  less  than  one-half  were  in  actual  service 
at  one  time.  The  war  opened  with  a  Union  army  of 
16,000,  and  the  Confederacy  had  not  a  single  soldier.  At 
the  close  of  the  war  the  North  had  enrolled  1,000,516 
soldiers,  and  the  South  only  175,000. 

LIII.    BATTLES  AND  LOSS  OF  LIFE. 

The  total  number  of  engagements  of  all  kinds  in  the 
four  years  was  2,265.  There  were  330  battles  where 
the  Union  loss  in  killed,  wounded  and  missing  was  above 
100.  Seven  hundred  thousand  soldiers  died  for  the 
Union  or  for  the  Confederacy. 


FREEDOM  OF  THE  SLAVES.  95 

LIV.  COST  OF  THE  WAR. 
When  Fort  Sumter  was  surrendered  the  debt  of  the 
United  States  was  about  $80,000,000.  When  Lee  sur- 
rendered it  was  $2,800,000,000.  During  the  last  three 
years  of  the  war  the  Federal  government  collected 
$780,000,000  in  taxes,  sold  $1,100,000,000  worth  of 
bonds,  and  issued  in  the  form  of  notes  and  paper  money, 
$1,000,000,000.  But  the  total  cost  of  the  civil  war  will 
not  be  known  until  the  Confederate  outlay  can  be  given, 
the  destruction  of  property  on  both  sides  ascertained, 
and  the  loss  in  labor  of  4,000,000  soldiers  is  estimated 
with  some  accuracy. 

LV.  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  SLAVES. 

At  first  the  war  was  to  save  the  Union  and  not  to 
free  the  slaves.  In  February,  1861,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives unanimously  passed  a  resolution  declaring  that 
Congress  had  no  power  to  touch  slavery  in  the  slave 
States.  When  Lincoln  was  first  inaugurated  he  ex- 
pressly disclaimed  any  intention  t-o  interfere  with  slavery 
where  it  then  existed.  The  North  would  not  then  sup- 
port an  abolition  war.  The  two  giant  forces  of  freedom 
and  of  slavery  had  come  into  deadly  conflict,  and  one  was 
trying  to  maintain  a  legal  union  with  its  natural  enemy. 

But  as  the  great  war  went  on,  its  real  cause  thrust  itself 
into  all  the  military  operations.  The  slave  might  be  a 
laborer  or  soldier  in  the  Union  army.  He  was  such  in 
the  Confederate  army.  He  labored  on  the  plantation, 
while  his  master,  on  the  battle  field,  fought  to  make 
slavery  eternal.  The  patient  bondman  faithfully  and 
lovingly  cared  for  the  wife  and  children  of  the  man  who 
fought  to  destroy  the  sacredness  and  beauty  of  the  lowly 
home.  It  was  said  that  a  single  firebrand  thrown  into  a 


96  FREEDOM    AND   SLAVERY. 

Southern  home  would  have  disbanded  the  Confederate 
armies ;  and  not  one  was  thrown.  This  speaks  eloquently 
for  master  and  slave,  but  it  can  never  justify  a  system 
that  produced  a  constant  succession  of  outrages.  By 
their  devotion  the  slaves  defended  slavery.  They  fur- 
nished a  large  army  of  laborers,  who  released  an  equal 
number  of  white  men  for  active  military  operations. 

As  the  war  went  on  the  North  was  compelled  to  rec- 
ognize slavery  as  a  fact  of  great  military  importance. 
In  July,  1862,  Congress  confiscated  the  slaves  of  all  per- 
sons in  rebellion  against  the  United  States.  This  law 
alone  would  have  freed  nearly  half  of  the  slaves.  At 
once  the  cry  of  an  "  Abolition  War "  went  up  at  the 
North,  and  Lincoln  appealed  to  the  public  in  a  remark- 
able letter  to  Greeley.  "  If  I  could  save  the  Union  with- 
out freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it;  if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  ail  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it 
by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  do  it." 
Lincoln  seems  to  have  had  two  distinct  policies  at  this 
time.  Deep  in  his  heart  lay  an  abiding  love  of  justice, 
and  he  wished  that  this  great  war  should  not  end  with- 
out removing  a  great  wrong.  Years  before  he  had  seen 
a  young  girl  sold  at  auction  in  New  Orleans,  and  moved 
by  strong  emotion,  he  then  said:  "  If  I  ever  get  a  chance 
to  hit  slavery,  I'll  hit  it  hard." 

He  was  now  in  a  position  to  strike  slavery  with  all 
the  energy  of  the  North,  and  to  put  the  South  in  defense 
of  the  wrong  before  the  civilized  world. 

But  he  knew  that  a  war  for  abolition  alone  would  not 
be  supported.  Hence  he  emphasized  the  military  ne- 
cessity of  emancipation.  He  sincerely  believed  in  that 
necessity,  but  an  almost  divine  justice  and  compassion 
controlled  his  action. 


THE  NAVY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.       97 

In  September,  1862,  Lincoln  thought  the  time  for  ac- 
tion had  come.  The  war  had  been  in  progress  a  year 
and  a  half,  and  the  policy  of  the  Administration  would 
soon  be  considered  in  the  November  elections.  A  great 
battle  had  just  driven  a  southern  army  from  northern  soil. 
Lincoln  determined  to  let  the  North  choose  between 
freedom  and  slavery. 

On  September  22,  1862,  he. issued  a  proclamation  de- 
claring "  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or 
designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then 
be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then, 
thenceforward,  and  forever  free."  On  the  day  ap- 
pointed he  issued  the  famous  emancipation  proclamation 
which  made  "  Liberty  and  Union,  one  and  inseparable." 

From  this  time  on  the  Union  soldiers  were  fighting  to 
destroy  slavery  as  well  as  to  save  the  Union.  Every 
battle  was  now  a  blow  for  freedom  and  every  death  a 
sacrifice,  nobly  rendered,  to  make  the  bondman  free. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  the  victorious  North  forced  into 
the  Constitution  the  thirteenth  amendment:  "Neither 
slavery  nor  involuntarj'-  servitude,  except  as  a  punish- 
ment for  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted,  shall  exist  in  the  United  States  or  any  place 
subject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

LVL  THE  NAVY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

When  the  war  began  the  North  had  only  thirteen  ves- 
sels ready  for  immediate  service.  The  remaining  sev- 
enty-seven were  either  disabled  or  thousands  of  miles 
away  on  distant  seas. 


98  FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 

The  South  had  not  a  single  sailor  or  vessel  of  war. 
It  had  only  three  rolling  mills,  no  body  of  skilled  mechan- 
ics, and  no  great  gun  factories  or  machine  shops.  But 
a  single  cotton  crop  might  purchase  a  navy,  and  England 
would  quickly  buy  the  cotton  and  gladly  sell  the  shipsr 
and  with  these  ships  the  South  might  sweep  the  north- 
ern commerce  from  the  ocean. 

It  was  a  clear  military  necessity  for  the  North  to  have 
at  least  six  hundred  vessels  to  blockade  the  entire  Con- 
federacy and  to  capture  the  forts  and  ports  along  its 
1,900  miles  of  coast. 

To  effect  this  great  object,  the  government  at  once 
began  to  add  to  the  navy  in  five  ways. 

1.  Everything  afloat  that  could  be  used  in  the  service 
was  bought.     By  July  i,  1861,  twelve  steamers  were 
added  to  the  service. 

2.  Contracts  were  at  once  made  with  private  parties 
to  construct  small  but  heavily-armored  screw  gunboats. 
Some  of  these  were  afloat  in  four  months,  and  were 
called  "  ninety-dajr  gunboats." 

3.  The  government  began  the  construction  of  sloops- 
of-war,  and  at  the  close  of  1861  fourteen  were  in  the 
service. 

4.  The  government   built   very   many    paddle-wheel 
steamers  for  use  on  the  rivers  and  in  shallow  channels. 

5.  The  government  constructed  ironclad  war  vessels. 
As  fast  as  these  vessels  were  made  they  were  sent 

along  the  coast  to  stop  all  trade  with  the  South.  Old 
vessels  loaded  with  stone  were  sunk  at  the  narrowest 
entrances  to  ports.  Gunboats  were  stationed  in  or  near 
the  harbor,  ready  to  capture  or  destroy  any  vessel  at- 
tempting to  pass. 


THE  NAVY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.        99 

This  blockade  was  very  effective.  During  the  year 
before  the  war  the  South  had  sent  4,500,000  bales  of 
cotton  to  Europe;  but  during  the  next  year  not  over 
50,000  bales  passed  the  blockade.  The  price  of  cotton 
fell  to  eight  cents  a  pound  in  the  South  and  rose  to  fifty 
cents  a  pound  in  England.  The  prices  of  manufactured 
articles  of  all  kinds  rapidly  rose  in  the  Confederacy. 
During  the  war  the  navy  captured  over  1,100  prizes, 
worth  $31,000,000,  but  its  great  work  lay  in  destroying 
the  foreign  trade  of  the  South. 

A  cargo  of  manufactured  articles  from  England  soon 
commanded  an  extraordinary  amount  of  cotton  in  the 
South  and  offered  the  strongest  inducement  to  break  the 
blockade.  But  as  vessels  could  not  enter  the  southern 
ports  direct  from  Europe,  it  was  necessary  to  have  depots 
of  supplies  near  the  South.  Four  places  —  Nassau,  Ber- 
muda, Havana  and  Matamoras  —  served  as  stations  for 
the  trade.  The  chief  southern  ports  were  Savannah, 
Charleston  and  Wilmington.  A  short  run  of  five  or  six 
hundred  miles  connected  these  cities  with  Nassau. 

To  carry  on  this  short  line  trade  it  became  necessary 
to  have  special  vessels,  known  as  blockade-runners. 
These  were  long,  sharp-pointed,  narrow  side-wheel 
steamers.  The  hulls  were  painted  in  a  dull  gray  color 
and  rose  but  a  few  feet  above  the  water.  Anthracite 
coal  was  used  to  avoid  much  smoke,  and  the  smoke- 
stacks rose  but  little  above  the  decks.  The  vessels  were 
constructed  for  speed,  invisibility  and  stowage.  On  a 
dark  night  and  with  a  high  tide  these  vessels  would  run 
past  the  blockade,  change  cargoes,  return  to  Nassau  and 
reship  the  cotton  to  Europe.  In  four  years  1,500  block- 
ade runners  were  made  prizes  or  sunk  and  the  trade  was 
gradually  diminished. 


100  FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY. 

LVII.    ENGLAND  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

A  powerful  party  in  England  early  showed  sympathy 
for  the  South.  The  strength  of  this  party  was  the  aris- 
tocracy, and  its  leader  was  the  Prime  Minister,  Lord 
John  Russell.  During  the  early  part  of  the  war  nearly 
all  the  great  newspapers,  the  leading  magazines,  and  the 
interviews  and  speeches  of  prominent  men  openly  ex- 
pressed sympathy  for  the  South,  and  declared  that  the 
Union  was  destroyed.  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton  pre- 
dicted that  four  republics  would  spring  forth  from  the 
ruins  of  the  Union.  Lord  John  Russell  said,  "  The  strug- 
gle is  on  the  one  side  for  empire,  and  on  the  other  for 
power."  Edward  A.  Freeman,  the  distinguished  his- 
torian, had  printed  on  the  title  page  of  one  of  his  histories 
his  belief  in  the  "  disruption  of  the  United  States."  Glad- 
stone said,  "  The  Federal  government  can  never  succeed 
in  putting  down  the  rebellion."  \ 

Out  of  this  public  sentiment  grew  the  hostile  action  of 
the  English  government.  In  February  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell wrote  to  Lord  Lyons  in  Washington  that  the  United 
States  had  "  sought  for  quarrels  "  with  England,  but  that 
"  British  forbearance  springs  from  the  consciousness  of 
strength  and  not  from  the  timidity  of  weakness."  In 
March  a  motion  to  recognize  the  independence  of  the 
Confederacy  was  made  in  Parliament.  On  May  6  Lord 
John  Russell  said  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  the 
"  Southern  Confederacy  of  America  .  .  .  must  be 
treated  as  a  belligerent."  On  May  13  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  the  United  States  minister  to  England,  landed  at 
Liverpool;  and  on  the  very  same  day,  as  if  to  show  dis- 
courtesy, England's  proclamation  of  neutrality  was  issued. 
In  July  Lord  John  Russell,  through  Lord  Lyons  at 


THE  NAVY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.        IOI 

Washington,  directed  Mr.  Bunch,  a  British  consul  at 
Charleston,  to  open  negotiations  with  the  Confederate 
government.  The  government  at  Washington  demanded 
the  recall  of  Mr.  Bunch  for  this  hostile  movement,  but 
England  assumed  full  responsibility  for  the  act  and  re- 
fused the  demand. 

In  the  autumn  of  1861  the  Confederate  government 
appointed  James  Murray  Mason,  of  Virginia,  and  John 
Slidell,  of  Louisiana,  ministers  respectively  to  England 
and  France.  These  officers  were  authorized  to  secure 
the  full  recognition  of  the  Confederacy,  to  get  loans  and 
military  supplies  for  the  South,  to  make  treaties,  and  to 
defeat  the  Union  diplomacy.  On  the  dark  and  stormy 
night  of  October  12  the  ministers  with  their  two  secre- 
taries left  Charleston  for  Nassau.  From  thence  they 
went  to  Cardenas,  Cuba,  and  then  overland  to  Havana. 
From  this  neutral  port  they  took  passage  on  the  Trent, 
a  British  mail  steamer  and  a  neutral  vessel  bound  for  a 
neutral  port.  They  were  clearly  beyond  the  reach  of 
legal  capture.  But  on  November  8  Captain  Wilkes,  of 
the  United  States  man-of-war  San  Jacinto,  captured  the 
two  ministers  and  their  secretaries  and  took  them  as 
prisoners  to  Fort  Warren,  Boston. 

The  whole  North  rejoiced  at  the  capture.  A  banquet 
in  honor  of  Captain  Wilkes  was  given  in  Boston.  On 
December  2  Congress  gave  him  a  vote  of  thanks.  But 
Lincoln  said,  "  I  fear  the  traitors  will  prove  to  be  white 
elephants.  We  must  stick  to  American  principles  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  neutrals.  We  fought  Great  Brit- 
ain for  insisting,  by  theory  and  practice,  on  the  right  to 
do  precisely  what  Captain  Wilkes  has  done." 

Two  days  after  the  news  of  the  capture  was  received 
the  English  cabinet  met  and  demanded  the  immediate 


102  FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY. 

release  of  the  four  men,  and  that  a  suitable  apology 
should  be  rendered  to  the  English  government.  Troops 
and  supplies  were  at  once  ordered  to  Canada  to  enforce 
the  demand.  This  was  that  "  British  forbearance  that 
springs  from  the  consciousness  of  strength,"  rather  than 
a  deliberate  plan  to  destroy  the  great  nation  that  for 
three-fourths  of  a  century  had  risen  with  such  power 
and  splendor  and  that  was  now  struggling  for  its  very 
life. 

The  prisoners  were  released  and  Gladstone  taunted 
the  North  for  its  wavering  policy.  Unfortunately,  Sew- 
ard  returned  the  prisoners  on  the  ground  that  they  had 
not  been  formally  adjudged  in  a  prize  court.  This  was 
nothing  but  the  old  right  of  search  where  a  "British 
man-of-war  had  been  made  a  floating  judgment  seat  six 
thousand  times."  The  plain  fact  was  that  the  Trent  was 
a  neutral  vessel,  from  a  neutral  port  to  a  neutral  port, 
and  was,  by  international  law,  a  part  of  the  territory  of 
the  nation  to  which  she  belonged. 

But  the  English  government  permitted  on  its  own  soil 
open  hostility  to  the  Union.  It  allowed  the  Confederacy 
to  establish  on  English  soil  an  active  naval  department. 
There  its  vessels  were  built,  repaired,  armed,  commis- 
sioned and  sent  forth  to  destroy  the  merchant  vessels  of 
the  nation  with  which  England  was  at  peace.  Years 
later  England  paid  $15,500,000  in  gold  for  her  hostility 
to  a  friendly  nation,  but  the  remembrance  of  that  hos- 
tility will  never  be  effaced. 

There  were  two  Englands.  The  landed  aristocracy 
and  their  followers  had  no  sympathy  with  republican 
governments;  but  the  common  people  of  England  were 
the  natural  allies  of  the  North,  and  their  noblest  repre- 
sentative was  John  Bright.  This  eloquent  and  able 


THE    SOUTH    IN    1865.  103 

statesman  deserves  all  honor  in  America.  In  the  dark- 
est hour  of  the  Union  he  foretold  its  final  triumph,  and 
eloquently  portrayed  its  restoration  over  a  vast  domain 
with  "  one  people  and  one  language  and  one  law  and  one 
faith,  and  over  all  that  wide  continent  the  homes  of  free- 
dom." The  civil  war  produced  the  "  Cotton  Famine  " 
in  England,  and  500,000  operatives,  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment, were,  at  one  time,  receiving  poor  relief.  This 
vast  industrial  army,  under  the  stress  of  poverty,  denied 
its  sympathy  to  a  slave  republic.  The  common  people 
of  England  felt  that  the  North  was  fighting  for  free 
labor. 

LVIII.    THE  SOUTH  IN  1865. 

At  the  opening  of  1865  the  situation  at  the  South  was 
desperate.  The  Union  navy  had  utterly  destroyed  her 
foreign  trade,  and  stood  guard  at  every  sea  port.  Sheri- 
dan, for  the  last  time,  was  laying  waste  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  Sherman  had  burned  the 
factories  and  machine  shops  of  the  manufacturing  center 
of  the  South,  had  made  a  wide  swath  of  desolation  to 
the  sea,  and  now,  destroying  as  he  advanced,  was  march- 
ing North  to  join  Grant  at  Richmond.  Grant's  army 
presented  a  solid  front  of  iron  and  steel  to  Lee's  small 
army  behind  the  defenses  around  Richmond.  The  Con- 
federate troops  lacked  food  and  supplies  of  all  kinds. 
The  railroads  were  not  repaired,  the  plantations  were 
neglected,  the  money  was  worthless,  desertions  from  the 
army  were  common,  and  the  prisons  were  rilled  with 
Union  soldiers. 


104  FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY. 

LIX.    THE  FALL  OF  RICHMOND. 

On  Sunday,  April  2,  1865,  all  was  in  confusion  in  the 
city.  President  Davis  was  at  church  when  he  received 
news  of  Grant's  attack.  He  at  once  left  the  service, 
called  a  cabinet  meeting,  and  decided  that  all  the  govern- 
ment archives  should  be  taken  out  of  the  city.  The 
State  legislature  and  city  council  also  met  and  took 
measures  for  departure.  The  arsenal  and  war  vessels 
were  now  destroyed  by  tremendous  explosions,  and  large 
stores  of  cotton  and  tobacco  were  set  on  fire  to  prevent 
capture  by  the  enemy.  All  the  liquor  was  ordered  de- 
stroyed, but  a  mob  gave  free  rein  to  disorder  and  crime. 
A  desperate  band  of  convicts  set  fire  to  the  State  prison, 
and  in  their  striped  clothes  went  yelling  and  leaping 
through  the  streets.  One  Lumkin  had  in  his  slave- 
trader's  jail  some  fifty  slaves  —  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren. These  he  chained  together  and  got  ready  to  leave 
the  city. 

On  Monday  order  was  restored.  A  colored  regiment, 
under  the  command  of  a  grandson  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  entered  the  city.  They  were  regarded  with 
perfect  horror  by  the  white  people,  and  met  with  trans- 
ports of  delight  by  the  colored  population.  The  black 
soldiers,  in  their  bright  uniforms,  rose  in  their  stirrups 
and  waved  their  swords  to  greet  the  cheers  of  their 
colored  brethren. 

LX.    LINCOLN  IN  RICHMOND. 

On  Tuesday  Lincoln  entered  Richmond.  Accom- 
panied by  his  son  Tad  and  a  small  guard,  and  led  by  a 
colored  man  as  a  guide,  he  walked  a  mile  and  a  half  to 
the  main  part  of  the  city.  Crowds  of  colored  people 


THE    ASSASSINATION    OF   LINCOLN.  105 

looked  with  wonder,  joy  and  reverence  on  the  man 
of  whom  they  had  heard  so  much.  One  white-haired 
negro  wearing  a  crownless  hat,  without  a  coat,  and  in 
tattered  clothes,  half  knelt  before  the  President  and  said, 
"  May  de  good  Lord  bless  and  keep  you  safe,  Mars 
Linkum."  "Lincoln  raised  his  hat  and  his  eyes  filled  with 
tears. 

LXI.    LEE'S  SURRENDER:  APRIL  9,  1865. 

On  April  3,  1865,  Lee  evacuated  Richmond.  It  was 
a  beautiful  spring  morning.  Flowers  grew  by  the  way- 
side. Many  peach  trees  along  the  way  were  in  bloom. 
The  air  was  pure  and  clear,  and  the  pale  green  leaves 
gave  a  delicate  color  and  charm  to  the  landscape. 

Grant  pushed  his  troops  after  the  retreating  Confed- 
erates. Sheridan,  by  rapid  marching,  got  directly  in 
front  of  Lee's  line  of  retreat.  On  April  9  Lee  sur- 
rendered his.  whole  army  at  Appomattox  Court  House, 
and  the  war  was  ended. 


LXII.    ASSASSINATION  OF  LINCOLN. 

On  the  President's  return  to  Washington  he  attended 
Ford's  theatre  on  the  evening  of  April  14,  1865.  John 
Wilkes  Booth,  an  actor,  ambitious  for  fame,  noiselessly 
opened  the  door  at  the  rear  of  the  box  where  Lincoln 
sat.  He  had  a  dagger  in  one  hand  and  a  pistol  in  the 
other.  He  sent  a  bullet  through  Lincoln's  brain,  jumped 
from  the  box  to  the  stage,  cried  to  the  audience  "  Sic 
Semper  Tyrannis,"  ran  quickly  across  the  stage,  escaped 
through  a  rear  door,  mounted  a  horse  in  readiness,  and 
fled  in  the  darkness  from  the  city. 

The  assassin  had  done  sure  work.     Lincoln  moved 


106  FREEDOM  AND  SLAVERY. 

but  slightly.  His  eyes  closed,  his  head  drooped  forward, 
and  he  became  unconscious.  He  was  at  once  taken 
across  the  street  to  a  room,  and  physicians  were  sum- 
moned. Members  of  the  Cabinet  watched  at  the  bed- 
side during  the  night.  Senator  Sumner  was  there,  his 
great  frame  shaken  by  sobs.  Lincoln  died  the  next 
morning  a  little  after  seven. 

Funeral  services  were  held  in  the  East  Room  of  the 
White  House,  and  then  the  cortege  began  its  long  jour- 
ney over  the  same  route  taken  by  Lincoln  on  his  way  to 
Washington  four  years  before.  As  the  funeral  car 
moved  along  Pennsylvania  avenue,  it  was  preceded  by  a 
detachment  of  colored  soldiers  and  followed  by  the  min- 
isters of  foreign  nations,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
members  of  Congress  and  chief  officers  of  the  govern- 
ment. Bells  tolled  and  minute  guns  sounded  from  the 
distant  fortifications.  The  body  lay  in  state  for  two  days 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol.  The  tall  columns  and 
massive  dome  were  draped  in  black.  At  Philadelphia 
a  great  concourse  in  Independence  Hall  looked  on  the 
face  of  the  man  who,  four  years  before,  in  that  place, 
had  said,  "Sooner  than  surrender  these  principles  I 
would  be  assassinated  on  this  spot."  An  immense  mul- 
titude saw  the  remains  in  the  City  Hall  of  New  York. 
In  that  city  a  solemn  funeral  hymn  was  rendered  at  mid- 
night by  German  musical  societies.  As  the  funeral  train 
went  along  the  Hudson,  dirges  and  hymns  were  sang 
and  crowds  stood  uncovered  as  the  body  was  borne  to 
its  distant  resting  place.  While  he  lay  in  state  in  the 
Capitol  at  Albany,  his  assassin  stood  at  bay  in  a  burn- 
ing barn  and  was  shot  by  a  Union  soldier.  The  long 
journey  westward  was  one  continued  tribute  of  grief 
and  affection.  At  the  grave  his  second  inaugural  ad- 


TWO   FORCES.  107 

•dress  was  read,  and  its  closing  words  marked  well  the 
trend  of  his  life  and  character:  "With  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish 
the  work  we  are  in." 

LXIII.    THE  GRAND  REVIEW. 

In  May  the  armies  under  Grant  and  Sherman  were 
assembled  in  Washington  for  a  final  and  grand  review. 
A  large  reviewing  stand,  finely  decorated  with  flowers, 
evergreens  and  flags,  was  erected  near  the  White  House, 
and  on  this  President  Johnson,  General  Grant,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet  and  other  distinguished  men  assem- 
bled to  honor  the  two  great  armies  of  the  Union.  For 
days  before,  every  train  had  brought  crowds  of  people 
into  the  city,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  review  Pennsyl- 
vania avenue,  on  both  sides,  was  lined  with  a  dense  mass 
of  humanity  from  the  Capitol  to  the  White  House.  An 
hour  before  the  troops  began  to  march,  the  school  chil- 
dren of  the  city,  bearing  flowers  for  the  soldiers,  took 
position  at  the  Capitol.  For  two  days  the  great  host, 
forming  a  column  thirty  miles  in  length,  marched  along 
the  historic  avenue.  It  was  a  great  army  that  knew 
what  war  meant,  and  that  had  faced  death  on  many 
battlefields.  Their  uniforms  were  worn  and  torn  by 
hard  service.  Many  flags  had  been  cut  into  shreds  by 
shot  and  shell.  Memories  of  the  fallen  arose  from  the 
stern  pageant  as  the  great  army  began  its  last  march  for 
distant  homes  and  friends. 

LXIV.    TWO  FORCES. 

From  the  voyage  of  the  Treasurer  to  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  the  institution  of  slavery  was  a  positive  and  ag- 


io8 


FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY. 


gressive  force  in  the  industrial,  social  and  political  life  of 
the  South.  For  two  and  a  half  centuries  it  had  spread 
over  a  vast  and  fertile  country.  It  had  built  up  fifteen 
slave  States,  embracing  an  area  of  700,000  square  miles. 
The  slave  was  called  "the  mud-sill"  of  society,  and 
slavery  was  termed  "  a  good  —  a  positive  good."  Above 
this  submerged  mass  appeared  the  courtesy  and  refine- 
ment of  the  white  aristocracy.  Slavery  was  protected 
in  every  department  of  local,  State  and  national  govern- 
ment. Nothing  but  a  sweeping  revolution  from  within 
or  a  gigantic  attack  from  without  could  destroy  an  |in- 
stitution  so  interwoven  with  the  structure  of  society.^ 

From  the  voyage  of  the  Mayflower  to  the  election  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  freedom  was  a  constant  power  in  the 
industrial,  social  and  political  life  of  the  North.  During 
two  and  a  half  centuries  that  power  had  been  extended 
from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  Golden  Gate  of  California. 
Free  labor  was  the  foundation  of  Northern  industry  and 
progress.  Millions  of  European  immigrants  poured 
fresh  blood  into  the  veins  of  the  North.  Manufactures 
multiplied,  commerce  on  the  Great  Lakes  enormously  in- 
creased, and  uniting  the  North  was  a  great  railway  sys- 
tem, over  which  were  whirled  the  myriad  products  of 
industry. 

The  civil  war  brought  these  opposing  forces  together, 
and  freedom  triumphed  over  slavery.  It  was  a  victory 
of  civilization  over  a  relic  of  barbarism.  It  enlarged  the 
ever-widening  empire  of  freedom  and  justice. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


•         OMRT 


JUL  02  799? 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


